Budget 2014-15, presented yesterday by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, promises to provide a major impetus for the growth and development of the Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.
T.T. Ashok, Co-Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Council, felt that Jaitley has duly recognized that Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of the country's industrial output and employment. Jailty rightly underscored the importance of promoting entrepreneurship and start-up enterprises.
Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said that budget lays out medium term vision for the economy and meets industry expectations on growth and employment.
He further said that CII is happy to note the encouragement to manufacturing through various measures such as opening defence, insurance, and e-commerce sectors to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), correcting Inverted duty structure, setting up of industrial clusters and promoting entrepreneurship.
CII welcomes the proposal to set up Rs 10,000 crore fund that will act as a catalyst to private capital by way quasi-equity, soft loan, and other risk capital for start-up companies.
The decision to revisit the definition of MSME by providing for a higher capital ceiling was most awaited which has been the CII's recommendation for the last five years.
A programme to provide forward and backward linkages with multiple value chains of manufacturing and services sector will also be put in place along with a friendly legal bankruptcy framework for SMEs to facilitate easy exit which were CII's key recommendations.
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Ashok welcomed the Jaitley's proposal to set up a trade facilitation centre and a craft centre with a museum with an outlay of Rs 50 crore to develop and promote handloom products which is a welcome step for the development of the Micro Enterprises in India, and is going to help them showcase at a global scale.
Jaitley also announced support for starting six textile mega clusters, in Bareilly, Lucknow, Surat, Bhagalpur, Mysore and Tamil Nadu allocating Rs 200 crore, whichis a major thrust to the reviving of the MSMEs in the textile sector which is the need of the hour.
"Allocation of Rs 100 crore to set up the Technology Development Fund to Public and private companies include SMEs to support and develop the Defence sector, and cutting-edge technologies is going to help the core MSMEs in accessing global technologies and make them compete at a global scale," said Ashok.
He specially welcomed the Programme "Skill India" which is to be launched to skill the youth with an emphasis on employability and Entrepreneur skills will help in nurturing entrepreneurship in India and also help in bridging the current skill gap in the MSME sector in India.
Setting up of Committee to examine the financial architecture for MSME Sector, remove bottlenecks and create new rules and structures and give concrete suggestions in three months is a step forward to address financing problem of MSME.
The amendment of the Apprenticeship Act will encourage MSMEs to avail of the benefits under the scheme and will help in getting skilled manpower for the MSME sector which is currently in deep need of.
The focus of the budget more on providing infrastructural support like power and land for the MSMEs under various schemes in rural India is going to spur the growth of the sector and create a large number of employments and revive the economy back.
Steps like boost to tourism industry by incorporating concept of e-visas, Funds to stimulate biotech in India emphasizes the importance the Government is showing towards promoting MSMEs in the services sector.
The "District level Incubation and Accelerator Programme" to be taken up will provide necessary support for accelerating entrepreneurship at the villages and rural India which is the way forward for a "Ache Din Anne wale Hai" for the rural youth in India.
Ashok welcomes the bold steps taken forward for the growth of MSME sector in India and is thankful to the Ministry of MSMEs for this path breaking budget for the MSME sector.