BHEL Small Industries Association (BHELSIA) has conveyed to the Union Finance Ministry the necessity to modify the sub-debt scheme announced by the government to enable enterprises in the MSME category to tide over the crisis caused by COVID pandemic.
In a meeting with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week, a BHELSIA team led by its president Rajappa Rajkumar explained why the sub-debt scheme in the present form has not been of help to the stressed units of Tiruchi MSME engineering cluster.
The Finance Minister had suggested that the BHELSIA prevail upon the MSME Ministry to come out with a proposal to that effect, while assuring to secure the clearance from Reserve Bank of India.
The BHELSIA team secured an assurance from the Finance Minister that the request of MSME sector for extension of time for payment of GST arrears until March 1, 2021, will be considered. The MSME units must be permitted to pay the same without any Penalty, renew the GST registration and start the manufacturing activities, Mr. Rajappa Rajkumar emphasised.
The Finance Minister agreed to take up the issue with the committee concerned, he said.
“We have expressed the difficulties faced by the member units of BHELSIA in executing the orders placed by BHEL Tiruchi due to the steep increase in price of steel, and the Minister agreed to take up the issue immediately and find a positive solution,” Mr. Rajappa Rajkumar said.
The BHELSIA also placed before the Minister a request for formation of a high- level committee for fine tuning the existing MSME and PSU (Public sector undertaking) procurement Policy, in sync with the present market conditions.
