“As on date, Rs 13,185 crore had been sanctioned for 3.6 lakh MSMEs in the state and out of the sanctioned amount Rs 11,505 crore had been disbursed to 3.04 lakh MSMEs. State government had been initiating several measures to revive MSMEs,” said officials attached to the department.

COVID-19 pandemic spread had caused a huge negative impact on the world economy and MSMEs in the state are one of the worst affected sectors as most industrial units have either shutdown or are on the verge of closure. However, officials in MSME department have placed high hopes of early revival of MSME sector.

“A scheme called CORUS- Covid Relief and Upliftment Scheme for MSMEs was implemented by the state government during lockdown period to ease the fund flow to meet contingency fund requirements for expenses related to capital expenditure and working capital needs. Under the scheme Rs 136 crore had been disbursed for MSMEs for new investments,” said officials.

Officials further said that under Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), Tamil Nadu had received the second highest number of loan applications through banks.

“Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami convened a state level bankers meet and instructed them to issue maximum number of loans to MSMEs,” said officials.

Another notable step taken by the state government is to extend the quantum of amount under collateral free loan scheme. “Through District Industrial Centres (DIC) the scheme of distributing collateral-free schemes is undertaken. For the first time in the country, state government took measures for giving collateral-free loans up to Rs 50 lakh and the Union government too have approved the proposal of the state government,” said officials.