Easy,cheaper finance options for MSMEs discussed at CII meet

Highlighting the significance of the MSME sector in nation building,Gupta further shared that the widely dispersed MSME sector contributes to 45 percent of India’s total manufactured output,40 percent of India’s exports,nine percent of India’s GDP,provides employment on a large scale even in rural areas and helps in developing entrepreneurs as well.

“Banks,Financial Institutions (FIs) and Non Banking Financial Corporations (NBFCs) should come forward and take responsibility to help in the growth of MSMEs with easy and cheap credit schemes soon,” he added,while announcing that SBoP has slashed rates of interest on credit to MSMEs in the food processing sector by 2 per cent,which mainly includes rice shellers and cotton ginners.

Raman Saluja,Chairman,Regional Committee on MSMEs,CII Northern Region,said,“The MSME sector,which is at the bottom of the pyramid of the Indian economy,needs to be nurtured and supported with favourable policies of the government and the regulatory bodies,backed by sound infrastructure and transportation facilities,easy and cheap credit and awareness about latest processes and technologies in order to help it revitalise and sustain itself”.

He added that if the provision of payment within 45 days of sale of the MSMED Act is implemented,a lot of woes of the MSMEs due to lack of credit would be solved because the money they get from sales within 45 days would then be easily recycled to meet their requirements time and again.

“Education and training of MSMEs is the key to enhancing their competitiveness and speed up their growth,” said Aman Chugh,Advisor,Capital Markets Group (NIRC),Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI),who is the youngest CA in the country. He also shared some of the options available with the MSMEs to raise easy and cheap credit.

The conference aimed at addressing various issues being faced by the MSMEs,like the lack of easy access to finance and equity capital,high cost of credit,lack of awareness about various sources of finance and risk coverage,poor power supply,obsolete technology,implementation of MSMED Act 2006,credit rating,poor infrastructure,delayed payments and unavailability of raw materials and skilled manpower.