Chennai, Jun 14 (KNN) Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan has asked banks to extend credit to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through various schemes of state and central governments, to help them to tide over the COVID crisis.

He made this request while chairing a special meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee on Friday to discuss the need for supporting the MSME sector.

During the meet, Thiagarajan highlighted the importance of collating data pertaining to disbursement of loans to MSMEs at more frequent intervals to better assess the impact of support extended to this sector.

Recognising that the MSME sector has been providing job opportunities to lakhs of people but they do not have the luxury of restructuring or diversifying, the Minister said, “Therefore, the MSME sector is in dire need of support from banks now. The benefits of various relief measures announced by the RBI should also reach the intended beneficiaries.”

Along with other senior officials, Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu and Finance Secretary S Krishnan were also present.