NEW DELHI: The national policy for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which seeks to boost the overall growth of the sector, is expected to be released by the end of this year.
MSME minister Kalraj Mishra said a committee headed by former Cabinet secretary Prabhat Kumar is drafting the policy and “we are expecting the report by October 31 and it would be released after that”.
He said the committee would meet some more stakeholders for the proposed policy and they are also looking at policies of other countries.
“We want a detailed policy for MSMEs,” he said while briefing media about the achievements of his ministry during the two years of the NDA government.
A committee will be set up by the end of this month to look after the revival and rehabilitation of sick MSME units, he added.
Presently, there is no integrated approach for the development of MSMEs despite the fact that the sector accounts for 45 per cent of India’s manufacturing and 40 per cent of exports.
The Reserve Bank had revised the rules pertaining to revival of advances to small businesses and asked lenders to form district-level committees to resolve stressed loans to MSMEs.
Talking about the increase in sales of khadi and village industries product, Mishra said it has increased to Rs 37,935 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 33,136 crore in 2014-15.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion to consume khadi products has definitely helped in increasing the sales volumes. We have also improved the quality and introduced new products,” he said adding youth is showing keen interest in such products.
The ministry is in discussion with public sector units to enhance procurement from MSME units as it has the potential to produce good quality products on time.
Declining for 17th straight month in April, exports dipped by 6.74 per cent to US$ 20.5 billion.
