Pratim Ranjan Bose
In his speech on May 12,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it amply clear that the government is ready
to take “bold measures” to safeguard interests of local business and
particularly in the MSME (Micro, small and medium enterprise) sector.
True to the promise, the
finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced some big bang
measures which not only aimed addressing the immediate liquidity concerns, but
laid foundations for giving the sector much needed impetus for long term
growth.
Source: Presentation by Finance Minister |
Structural reform
It is a pity that the
sector had to wait for decades for as simple a measure as changing definitions so
that growth does not come as a disincentive. It was a pity that policies in the
past created different classifications within the same small or micro industry
for manufacturing and service sector.
The worst part was
classification benchmarks were set on investment limits, while the global
practice is to follow turnover limit.
All these are history now.
Same benchmarks are set for all types of industries. Along with investment,
turnover is introduced as additional benchmark.
And all limits are
revised upwards by a few times, so much so that a Rs 99 crore turnover company
can now be recognized as medium and Rs 4.9 crore turnover enterprise be
referred as micro.
The importance will be
felt in the years to come. A business will try to achieve higher growth. There
is less need to camouflage growth by dividing total revenues under multiple
companies of small balance sheets. With a bigger balance-sheet they can bid for
bigger contracts and get due loan facilities from banks.
It is a structural reform
and will help improve compliance.
Source: presentation by Finance Minister |
Credit guarantee
The finance minister announced
a multi-billion dollar credit guarantee scheme to remove all hurdles before the
MSME sector - which is a major employment generator – to get bank loans to overcome
the current crisis.
The Rs 3,00,000 crore
worth collateral-free automatic loan by banks and NBFCs to the MSME sector is definitely
one big step to address the liquidity issues and give the enterprises a fair
chance to survive.
The window also has
provision for emergency credit line and will be operative till October 31. Nearly
45 lakh MSMEs are eligible to get four-year loans with one year moratorium on
principal repayment and capped interest, meaning there is no risk of interest
rate volatility.
There is an additional Rs
20,000 crore subordinate debt-window for two lakh stressed MSMEs, which were
not considered bankable under normal conditions.
This coupled with fresh
three-month extension of the EPF contribution scheme should help protect many
jobs in the sector.
Hand-holding the
promising
The best part of this liquidity
infusion announcement was Rs 50,000 Fund of Fund provision, created to ensure
equity contribution in promising MSMEs, which suffered during the COVID
pandemic.
The idea behind the
initiative is somewhat similar to venture capital finance, except that here the
aim is to ensure that such enterprises survive are able to sail through the
crisis period safely and get bigger.
The provision will help
create Fund or Funds, which will invest in equity – to avoid immediate repayment
obligations – in promising MSME and handhold them to grow into big companies.
The finance minister specifically mentioned that the fund will encourage the
MSMEs, selected for support under the scheme to get listed.
No global tender
On Tuesday the Prime
Minister raised the slogan of “Be vocal about local”. True to the spirit of the
call, the finance minister announced that “global tenders will be disallowed in
government procurement contracts, upto Rs 200 crore.”
The initiative – which is
a rerun of the pre-liberalisation practices - will help create local industries
and suppliers who were subjected to unfair competition from deep pocket
companies, resorting to undercutting to corner all the contracts.
The intent behind the
initiative is definitely good. However, the implementation will remain a
question. The main worry is how the government will ensure that best quality
goods are offered at competitive prices.
In the past when global
tenders were not there, India witnessed growth of an inefficient set of
ancillaries who survived on contracts from the State-owned enterprises without
much competition. It ensures self-reliance but quality suffered.
EOM.
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