Union micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) minister Narayan Rane on Wednesday addressed the issue of delayed payments to MSMEs.
He also inaugurated a dedicated portal to promote micro, small and medium enterprises in the North-East Region (NER) and Sikkim during the 18th meeting of the National Board of MSME (NBMSME).
“He highlighted the contribution of the MSME sector in GDP, exports and employment. He stressed the need to address the issue of delayed payments to micro and small enterprises,” the union MSME ministry said in a statement.
Rane said the MoU between the government and Common Service Centre will expand the handholding support to enterprises residing in remote areas and help them avail the benefits of government schemes.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently claimed the Centre has destroyed the backbone of micro, small and medium enterprises, the biggest job providers, due to flawed goods and services tax (GST).
This is one of many issues for which the grand old party is conducting the ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
Last year in Parliament, Rahul attacked the Centre over shutting down MSMEs during the pandemic, leading to the surge in unemployment in the country. He referred to the government’s response to his question where it accepted that 9% of MSMEs have been shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the written response, the union MSME minister pointed out the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report which said a total of 9,052 self-employed persons or businesspersons died by suicide in 2019 and 11,176 in 2020.
The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) study found that around 67% of MSMEs were temporarily closed, 50% of them had a revenue decline of over 25% in the financial year 2020-21.
