Amravati, June 16 (KNN) Presenting the second successive budget via virtual session of legislative assembly, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath said as a first step for supporting and nurturing the growth of MSMEs, the Government has introduced One Time Restructuring (OTR) of MSME loans scheme.

The scheme is being run under an umbrella program - Dr. Y.S.R Navodayam, which is focused on creating a new ecosystem for MSMEs.

“I would like to inform that due to the huge pendency of incentive payments under previous government, many MSMEs became sick and are facing difficulty in raising working capital. In order to bring the industry back on track, our Government has sanctioned a package of relief measures – RESTART,” he said.

This package includes release of pending incentives of Rs.904.89 crore to 11,238 MSME manufacturing and allied units in two phases, waiver of fixed /demand charges against contracted maximum demand for a period of 3 months from April 2020 to June 2020, working capital loans and preferential market access, the AP Finance Minister added.

He said creation of facilities, provision of credit and use of appropriate incentives, especially for the MSME in the field of industry are expected to act as catalysts for demand based growth to pick up.  

He said meaningful leveraging of factors of production and supporting productivity enhancement across sectors is the sine qua non of this year’s budget.

Rajendranath pointed that by the end of April (June-April 2020) 2020, 13,122 MSME were established, with an investment of Rs.2,503 crore and employment of 63,897 persons.

In respect of Large and Mega projects, 39 units have been established with an investment of Rs. 24,170 crore and employment of 36,810 persons. 

On Youth Welfare –Skill Development and Employment front, the Minister said government has taken up an industry skill gap analysis to identify skills required by various industries, availability of man power and procedures for imparting training in required skills.

This will ensure availability of skilled workforce to the industries setting base in AP while simultaneously increasing employment opportunities to local people, he said.

The Minister proposed to set up a Skills University at Tirupati and 30 Skill Colleges, one in each parliamentary constituency, one each in 4 IIITs and one at JNTU Pulivendula. The government is creating avenues for jobs through industrial and infrastructure development and has enacted “The Andhra Pradesh Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries / Factories Act, 2019” for providing 75% jobs to local people.

Under this Act, it is mandatory for existing and upcoming industries to provide 75% of jobs to local people. An allocation for FY 2020-21 to this sector is proposed at Rs. 856.62 crore, he said.

The 2020-21 Budget Estimates entail an overall decrease of 1.4 % over the 2019-20 budget estimates on account of major economic slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimated Revenue Deficit is around Rs. 18,434.14 crore and the Fiscal Deficit is estimated at around Rs. 48,295.58 crore. The fiscal deficit will be around 4.78 % of the GSDP, whereas the Revenue Deficit will be around 1.82 % of the GSDP. (KNN Bureau)