Hon’ble Shri Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for MSME and Road Transport and Highways informed today said that the central government is exploring new financial lending institutions for financial support to small-scale units. The minister said that government is working towards strengthening the NBFCs in the coming time which will help small businesses. The said information is announced in a meeting via video conferencing with the Members of Calcutta Chamber of Commerce on impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs and the measures taken to address the challenges at hand. Addressing the members, the minister Shri. Nitin Gadkari, re-iterated that we are waging a war against COVID-19 and we are trying to maintain the economic instability caused due to this pandemic. He requested all the stakeholders to work in tandem and urged the industry to maintain a positive attitude during this time to tide over this crisis. The Minister also stressed on usage of PPE (masks, sanitizer etc.) and advised to maintain social distancing norms in personal life and at work places. He also apprising the recent announcement on Special Economic Package: Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, he explained various support measures which has been announced for MSMEs such as collateral free automatic loan by the Finance Minister, distress fund etc. He said that all these measures will provide the required support to MSMEs to face the current economic challenges. The Minister also informed them that there has been restructuring of 6 lakh MSMEs till March 2020 and the Ministry is aiming to cover additional 25 lakh until December 2020. He added that the current contribution of MSMEs in export is 48%, which may be increased to 60%. He further shared that currently 11 crore jobs have been created through MSMEs and this to be increased to 5 crores. The Union Minister informed that export enhancement is the need of the hour and the government is also focussing it in special. He further added that there is need to reduce our cost on production, logistics etc. to become economically viable. The Minister shared that we are working on two booklets under the Ministry of MSME to cover details about last three year’s export and import. Some of the questions asked and the suggestions given included: issue of delayed payment needs additional thrust to ensure timely payment to MSMEs, interest subvention of 4% should be looked at to provide support to MSMEs and safeguard them from becoming an NPA, how banks can be incentivized for proper implementation of proposed measure etc. Shri Gadkari responded to the questions from representatives and assured all possible help from the government. Source: PIB