Guwahati, Sept 15 (KNN) The Unlock 4, which opened economic activities in India from September 1 might have brought relief for the people across the country as well as for retailers and others, but Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Assam are still at a crawling stage.

The unprecedented lockdown has created havoc across India and has brought businesses to a standstill, especially MSMEs who are almost on the verge of closure, in the state as they are encountering a number of bottlenecks.

''MSMEs have started to open their units but they are facing number of bottlenecks such many of them have come to know that their electricity dues while some of them have lost their connection and of course they are also accompanied by other issues such financial and manpower,'' told R S Joshi, Chairman of Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) to  KNN India on Tuesday.

''Situation is worsening because now suppliers are asking for 100 per cent advance for raw materials compared to earlier 10-15 per cent which has kept MSMEs at a crawling stage,'' he added.

Joshi further went on saying that whatever the issues may be, people are sincere and trying to come out from this jolt but a good number of MSMEs are definitely facing existential crises.

''I don't think they will ever recover but the units which have tie up with the larger industries have started their work as they can easily get support from them in terms of raw materials and finances. It will take some time to recover,'' Joshi added.

While talking about the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), Joshi said, ''it has benefitted MSMEs to some extent.''

Joshi, while commenting on migrants who have returned to states amid pandemic from Punjab, Delhi and from other states said, ''We can't utilise them here as we are not aware about their skills and talent.''

''If the government can start skill mapping of these migrants then MSMEs here can utilise them accordingly but any delay in skill mapping will restrict MSMEs to utilise them,'' he avowed.

When being asked about the delayed payments which have remained headache for the MSMEs since long despite having law for it, FINER Chairman said,'' Writing letters to CMDs of top corporate and Public Sector Units (PSUs) it just looks like a an advisory.''

''Until and unless there is a compulsion, MSMEs won't get their payments. In this crisis PSUs and big corporates are too crying citing their losses but these big firms shouldn't be doing this. It's already been six months and now they should release the payments to MSMEs,'' he asserted.  

According to Dun & Bradstreet's latest report, MSMEs are to be severely impacted and could take over 12 months to recover due the disruptions caused by the pandemic.

The D&B in its report has that the impact on MSMEs will be severe and will accompany small business for a longer time.

'Recessionary pressures across the globe are expected to have a direct impact on the level of global exports. Given that MSMEs contribute to over 40 per cent of India's exports, the impact will be severe and linger for a longer time,'' D&B had said in its report in April.

'MSMEs are expected to experience severe liquidity problems due to delayed payments from their customers,'' added the report.