New Delhi, Jan 27 ( KNN) The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of AU Small Finance Bank Sanjay Agarwal has emphasised on including steps to support MSMEs in upcoming union budget. 

He suggested this for the MSME sector to evolve in global supply chain dynamics as they gradually recover from the impact of the pandemic while needing continued hand-holding and policy support.

Agarwal has urged the government to include support schemes for MSMEs giving them easy access to capital for them to contribute significantly in the government initiatives such as Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

Looking at the current condition of MSMEs, this comment by Agarwal was put forward as 9 per cent of MSMEs have closed down closure due to the pandemic and crores of people lost their jobs.

In view of production capacity, the Economic and Political Weekly reported that the rate fell from 75 per cent capacity to 13 per cent during the peak of the lockdown in May 2020.

The aid and assistance for MSMEs is dire as in month of April and May 2021, about 60 per cent of the addition to non-performing assets (NPAs) came from MSMEs, compared to 30 to 40 per cent earlier.