GOVERNMENT HAS LAUNCHED THE SELF-RELIANT INDIA (SRI) FUND WITH A CORPUS OF ₹50,000 CRORE FOR MSMEs

GOVERNMENT COMMITTED TO ADDRESSING ISSUES OF MSMEs THROUGH MEASURES LIKE MSME SAMADHAN AND CHAMPIONS PORTAL

AS OF NOVEMBER 26, 2024, MSMEs HAVE REPORTED EMPLOYING 23.24 CRORE INDIVIDUALS

TReDS IS TRANSFORMING MSME FINANCING THROUGH TIMELY PAYMENTS: ECONOMIC SURVEY

The MSME sector is important to India’s progress, mentions the Economic Survey 2024-25 tabled in Parliament by Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman today. The Economic Survey highlights that the Government is implementing the Micro and Small Enterprises-Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP) to develop clusters across the country. Under this, Common Facility Centres (CFCs) are channels to address common issues, such as improvement of technology, skills, quality for MSEs.

The Survey further states the importance of equity funding to MSMEs. Government has launched the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund with a corpus of ₹50,000 crore. The Survey says, the fund has a provision of ₹10,000 crore from the government and ₹40,000 crore through private equity/venture capital funds.

The Economic Survey 2024-25 highlights that the Government is committed to addressing the issues of MSMEs’ through measures like MSME Samadhan and the CHAMPIONS (Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength) portal. The Economic Survey says that from the date of launch of the MSME SAMADHAAN portal 2,20,704 applications have been filed by MSEs, out of which 20652 have been mutually settled, 53493 are yet to be viewed by MSEFC, 60714 have been rejected, 45952 cases have been disposed off and 39893 cases are under consideration. As of date, the CHAMPIONS portal disseminates information in eleven regional languages.

As per the Economic Survey 2024-25, as of November 26, 2024, MSMEs have reported employing 23.24 crore individuals. In order to simplify the process of registering MSMEs and to enable ease of doing business, the Survey specifies that the Government launched the Udyam Registration Portal in July 2020. This online, self-declaration-based system requires a PAN card for registration. To formalize Informal Micro Enterprises (IMEs), the government in collaboration with SIDBI, introduced the Udyam Assist Platform (UAP) in January 2023, the survey adds.

On the front of facilitating credit to MSMEs, the Survey mentions a revamp of the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) was undertaken with ₹9,000 crore in the corpus of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for MSEs. This aimed to facilitate an additional ₹2 lakh crore credit for MSEs at reduced interest rates.

The launch of TReDS has been an important step taken by Government of India for benefitting the MSMEs and helping them realize their receivables in a time-bound manner at a relatively lower financing cost, the Survey adds. TReDS, is a marketplace that enables buyers such as government departments, public sector undertakings, corporates etc. to honour timely payments to their MSME suppliers as per MSMED Act 2006.

MSME financing and formalisation reforms expand equity, guarantee support and digital registration to ease business and speed payments. Policies strengthen MSMEs via cluster development, Common Facility Centres, an equity-focused Self-Reliant India Fund combining government seed capital with private funds, and a revamped Credit Guarantee Scheme to unlock additional lower-cost credit. Digital and facilitation measures include PAN-based Udyam Registration, Udyam Assist for informal enterprise formalisation, the MSME Samadhan grievance portal with recorded filing and disposition metrics, and the CHAMPIONS portal providing regional-language support. TReDS is identified as a marketplace to accelerate receivables and reduce MSME financing costs under the MSMED framework.