Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has said that micro, small and medium enterprises play a key role in the economic and industrial development, and announced a slew of measures to bring adversely hit the MSME sector back on track.
MSMEs play key role in economic and industrial development, he said. With the MSME sector facing a big blow due to COVID-19 triggered lockdown, Khattar announced many measures to help this sector.
These include setting up of bank complaint information centres by the finance department for redressal of issues related to banks and extending the date of depositing electricity bills without penalty till May 31.
Other measures include providing guarantee to MSMEs for bank loans from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) by the state government.
He said that agro industries with power connections of up to 20 KW, which till now were charged a rate of about Rs 7.50 and Rs 8, will have to pay Rs 4.75 per unit from April 1, 2020.
The chief minister said this while interacting with the representatives of over 100 MSMEs of all the districts of the state through video conferencing here on Saturday.
Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, who also holds the portfolio of Industries and Commerce Department, was also present in the meeting, an official statement said.
The Chief Minister said that during the nationwide lockdown period, the economic activity of all the states was affected and now they are being re-opened in a phased manner.
Khattar said that Haryana had reformed most of the labour laws in 2017.
However, if further amendments are required in our labour laws, we will do the needful within a week so that neither the workers, nor the industrialists face any difficulty, he said.
Haryana's Enterprise Promotion Policy, 2015 was appreciated all over the country, he told the representatives, while adding a new Enterprise Promotion Policy will be formulated from August 2020, for which suggestions will be invited from all stakeholders.
He said that the revenue collected in the last two months has been almost negligible as revenue sources had dried up in view of the crisis situation.
The revenue is mainly collected from GST, Excise, Stamp Duty, VAT refund from central government, and mining, he added.
On issues related to VAT refunds of 2017, he said these are being resolved in a timely manner. For about 1,300 applications, a refund of Rs 162 crore has been made since April.
He also assured to re-assess MSME's bank loans. The scheme to provide 10 per cent working capital has also been announced by the Centre, he added.
The Chief Minister said that industrial activities, barring the ones in the containment zones, have resumed in Haryana after certain relaxation during the lockdown.
Giving information about various types of concessions being given by the state to the industrial units, he said those industrial units whose electricity tariffs for the months of March, April and May would be half of the average of January and February, would be entitled to get a 25 per cent rebate in the fixed charge.
The remaining 75 per cent amount will have to be deposited from July to December in 6 equal installments.
He said that those industrial units which have resumed operations will be given permission to make the housing arrangements for their labourers and workers inside their premises, so that they can run their operations while remaining in-situ.
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