Chennai: Improving the availability of data regarding the health of MSMEs will help policy-making, finds the Economic Survey. Updated IIP, production and employment data of MSMEs, information on credit disbursement, and industry-wise financial flows are some of them.
Upgrading the statistics on the industry will aid policymaking. The index of industrial production should incorporate the vast changes that have occurred in India’s manufacturing landscape. State-level variants of such indices will help understand the emerging geographical patterns. Regular indicators of the dynamics of production and employment in MSMEs should be made available. Further, there should be information on industry-wise gross disbursement of bank credit as opposed to the data on outstanding credit currently available, and industry-wise monthly gross financial flows through domestic and external equity and debt.
Moreover, in a cooperative federalism mode, action should be taken to ensure support systems to develop MSME projects and their bankability and adequate financing arrangements. Employment-intensive MSME segments should be incentivized, a single-window mechanism made available for clearances, grassroots-level facilitation to ensure market access to MSME products and government-industry-academia collaboration to upskill the workforce.
From February 2024, the government has made provision to provide Rs 20 lakh credit for registered micro enterprises under credit guarantee scheme without primary security and with 85 per cent guarantee coverage and a reduced annual guarantee fee. Additionally, initiating legal action is not required for financial institutions to invoke the guarantee.
