The package announced by the State government to bail out micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector from the losses suffered by them due to COVID-19 pandemic has been welcomed by the investor community.
Investors thanked Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for taking timely action to help them wriggle out of the crisis.
CII national council member Gunturu Sivakumar said, “We thank the Chief Minister and Minister for Industries and IT M. Gowtham Reddy for promptly addressing the industry issues put forward by the CII and announcing the release of financial package during this crisis when the State is also going through turbulent times.”
The State has nearly 26 lakh MSMEs employing 70 lakh people and this announcement will benefit nearly one lakh industries.
He said as per the announcement, nearly ₹820 to ₹905 crore of past incentives from FY 2014-2020 will be cleared in May and June 2020.
One of the requests from the Industry was the waiver of Minimum Demand charges for the period not being used and the State considered waiving this for the months of April/May and June 2020 for MSMEs to the tune of ₹188 crore, Mr. Sivakumar told The Hindu.
While welcoming the incentives, CII A.P. past chairman R.V.S. Rudraraju applauded Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy and Mr. Gowtham Reddy for taking a timely decision to clear incentives, waive electricity minimum demand charge and most importantly the decision to provide low interest loans for MSMEs even when the government’s finances were not healthy.
“We are looking forward and hoping that they will provide such path-breaking packages to large Industries too,” he said.
According to Neeraj Sarda, past chair of CII Vizag zone and Deputy MD of Sarda Metals & Alloys Ltd, the decision taken to release the pending incentives for MSMEs since 2014-15 and disbursing it within the next two months is an opportune step in difficult times.
“I also hope that the State government considers to release the long- pending incentives of medium and large industries as soon as possible.”
Welcoming the decision to enable revival of MSME units, Sudhir Mulagada, zonal chairman, AP Chambers of Commerce & Industry Federation, described as quite encouraging the announcement to provide ₹200 crore working capital loan through SIDBI to MSMEs.