Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her sixth budget speech on February 1 said supporting MSMEs to grow globally is an “important policy priority” for the government even as there were no new announcements on credit access, technology adoption or GST for small businesses.
Among the strategies for the government for growth during the Amrit Kaal, the minister said, “It is an important policy priority for our government to ensure timely and adequate finances, relevant technologies and appropriate training for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to grow and also compete globally.”
Sitharaman added that orienting the regulatory environment to facilitate MSMEs’ growth will be an important element of this policy mix.
“Recognition of the role of MSME, need to compete globally in a green economy and need for policy environment that considers the need of MSME is important. India cannot generate the jobs it needs and compete globally without making its MSMEs competitive,” said Kanishk Maheshwari, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Primus Partners.
Meanwhile, as a measure for research and innovation to catalyse growth, employment and development, Sitharaman said a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore will be established with a fifty-year interest-free loan,
The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates to encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains, the minister said.
Nitin Potdar Corporate Partner, JSA Advocates and Solicitors said the move will “help India Inc across industry including SMEs/ MSMEs and startups to improve quality manufacturing which in turn would improve exports.”
On the other hand, traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said the capital expenditure raised to Rs 11.1 lakh crore in the budget will have a significant impact on the country’s markets, particularly benefiting traders.
“This will boost various projects, leading to increased business opportunities and a considerable rise in employment on a large scale,” said B.C. Bhartia, National President and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT in a statement.