Find equilibrium, Gadkari to bizmen

Shishir Arya | TNN | Apr 16, 2020, 04:22 IST

Nagpur: Union minister for MSMEs and road transport Nitin Gadkari has told industrialists that like them, the government, too, is facing a financial crisis due to Covid-19. Elaborating further, he said that some state governments are not even in a position to pay salaries to their employees.
Gadkari was addressing industrialists from the MSME sector through videoconferencing from Nagpur. The statement was in response to the industrialists’ major grievance that dues of MSMEs amounting to nearly Rs40,000 crore are pending with PSUs. Some of the government departments like the health ministry, too, have not cleared dues, said industrialists.
“In times of such crisis, industrialists should find a point of equilibrium so that all stakeholders can survive,” said Gadkari in the context of the financial crisis faced by the government. Even the banking industry is facing tough times, he said.
In a gesture to boost the sentiments of the industrialists, he quoted lines from US president Richard Nixon’s autobiography —“Man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.”
Gadkari urged industrialists to see the silver lining in the dark clouds. He said due to the corona crisis, countries like Japan and America are keen to withdraw their investments from China. If this happens then Indian industries stand a good chance of cashing in on the opportunity, Gadkari said.
After RBI’s guidelines, loans of various industries have been restructured. With dates for repayment of loans extended, the figure is likely to touch 15 lakh MSME units, said Gadkari.
He urged industrialists to tap the capital market. A proposal has been put before the cabinet to create a corpus of Rs10,000 crore for providing capital to MSMEs.
The MSMEs will be given ratings on the basis of turnover and GST payment. Industries can raise funds from the capital market on the basis of their ratings. Even the government will fund 15% of the capital for ventures from the corpus that is being created, he said.