Visakhapatnam: Banks must lend liberally to micro, small, and medium enterprises, especially those set up by women, to encourage entrepreneurship among them and generate large-scale employment, according to Union MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a Women Entrepreneurs’ Meet – Shakti – organised jointly by the India SME Forum and SBI on January 20.

Credit guarantee scheme

The minister said the banks could lend up to Rs. 2 crore to MSMEs without collateral security and they need not fight shy of it, as it is covered under the Credit Guarantee Trust Fund for MSMEs. Of course, the technical viability of the projects should be carefully assessed. Consultancy services should also be offered to women, he added.

Mishra said the NBFCs and the state financial corporations can now lend to MSMEs under the credit guarantee scheme.

He said the MSMEs conducting digital transactions can now borrow 30 per cent of the turnover as working capital loans instead of 20 per cent. Several tax relief measures had also been announced and women should make use of them fully to set up MSMEs, he said.

He said revival and rehabilitation of MSMEs was equally important and the states should fully co-operate with the Union Government in the endeavour.

MSME Policy

Kartikeya Mishra, the Director of Industries and CEO of AP Invest, said the AP government had formulated MSME Policy – 2015 to 2020 and a decision had been taken to set up at least one MSME park in each of the 175 Assembly constituencies in the State and some of the parks would be exclusively allocated to women.

Prahlad Kakkar, Advertising expert, Sushma Morthania, the Director-General of India SME Forum, and others spoke.

Source: Business Line