Lucknow: The industry body Assocham has demanded from the government a ‘concentrated and right kind’ of aid package for MSME sector, which has been most affected by Covid-19 pandemic. ‘Yes, there is a need for an emergency relief package that needs to be targeted very carefully. We at Assocham believe that both the center and the states need to come up with certain plans so that we can provide a concentrated, focused and the right kind of relief to those who need it most, ‘said Vineet Agarwal, President of Assocham said.
He suggested that some banks should increase the working capital limit of MSMEs by 20 per cent, but charge no extra collateral. Second, reclassification of NPAs from MSMEs needs to be done, Agarwal said. Third, street vendors, small retailers need to get some sort of relief, direct benefit and working capital loan, he added. Like the last time emergency measures for the rural sector in particular were taken, a similar step needs to be taken again, the president of Assocham said.
“There is definitely a need for some kind of impetus at different levels and definitely more at MSME level,” said Agarwal, who is also the managing director of Transport Corporation of India Limited (TCIL). On the impact of the second wave of the pandemic on the economy, he said: ‘As we also saw during the first wave, the larger companies were able to get out of it much faster. We see that MSMEs are now experiencing a lot of problems. So many of them are faced with the reduction of demand. Some of them do not receive their payments on time. We also know that the commodity cycle has increased, namely that the prices of commodities have risen, which affects their cost structure. Overall, the impact on MSMEs was excessive in the economy. ‘
In the service sector, especially hospitality and tourism, contact industries, the challenges are many, many more. ‘But at the same time we see that most factories, industries are operated to a large extent, some factories where the number Covid cases may have closed operations, but the supply chains were not disrupted to such an extent as happened in the first wave, ”he explained. It is therefore more stable in terms of impact, but there is definitely an impact, Agarwal noted.
Commenting on the recent meeting of industry bodies, including Assocham, with the RBI governor, Agarwal said: ‘The meeting was mainly centered on discussion with industry as part of the meeting before the Monetary Policy Committee. We shared some of these suggestions with the RBI Governor. The idea is that we need to keep doing something, the RBI was very proactive last time and it helped save a lot of industries and businesses. I also think the proactivity that the RBI is already starting to show should continue. ‘
From preparation perspective to the third wave of Covid, as warned by scientists, he suggested: ‘There is a need to increase the number of beds, more in rural, semi-rural and semi-urban areas and at district level.’ There is a need to increase the number of laboratories for performing genome sequencing under the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia (INSACOG) to measure the variants, he added. “We need to evaluate the tribes and respond proactively. Most importantly, vaccination should be accelerated to prevent third wave. ”
Source: Telangana Today