Govt Sets Up Committee To Boost Credit Supply To MSME Sector

The government has set up a committee to examine the financial structure of the MSME sector. The Department of Financial Services, under the Ministry of Finance, has set up the committee, which will have 15 members which includes experts from the private banking sector.

“The Committee consists of 15 members including K V Kamath, chairman of ICICI Bank as Chairperson of the Committee and Joint Secretary (Institutional Finance), DFS as Member Secretary. The first meeting of the above committee was held on November 5, 2014,” said Giriraj Singh, Minister of State, MSME ministry.

The biggest challenge faced by the players in the MSME sector is the shortage of sufficient funds to start their business. This is followed by issues such as getting basic infrastructure such as power connection, pollution, environment and labour clearances. But now the government is trying to resolve these issues.

“The Government is conscious of the problems being faced by start-up units. The Ministry of MSME is implementing a number of schemes and programmes to address the credit, infrastructure, technology & marketing needs of the start-ups. Some of the important schemes include Credit Guarantee Scheme, Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme, Cluster Development Programme and National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme,” stated Singh.

He further added, “The Ministry of MSME has been interacting with various concerned ministries, departments, state governments, banks and other Stake holders to streamline the mechanism for grant of loans, simplify labour laws and other procedures to facilitate the setting up of start-up units. The State Governments have made varied degree of progress in this direction”.