In order to support the State’s MSME units and compensate their losses during Covid-19 pandemic situation, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday approved a package of Rs 289.42 crore for the sector.
The package includes a number of assistance measures such as interest subvention, top-up subsidy, reimbursement of State GST and waiver of annual institutional maintenance charges.
A statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said the move would benefit a range of entrepreneurs, mostly women and weaker sections of society, in the MSME sector to recover from the unexpected challenges by the pandemic. Under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), about 1,70,000 MSMEs would get the benefit of interest subvention. The Government would provide an interest subvention with a one-year moratorium.
“A sum of Rs 108.29 crore is being released with a focus to cover 40% of eligible women run MSMEs,” the statement said.Under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) for the 2020-21 financial year, the top-up subsidy to weaker sections is 5% as promoters’ contribution as per the prescribed norm. An amount of Rs 27 crore has been provisioned to meet the requirement.This would help in a big way the weaker section including SC/ST/OBC/Minority Community/Women/Physically challenged/Ex-Servicemen during the pandemic crisis.
For the food processing units functioning under the Prime Minister’s Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME), 15% extra top-up subsidy would be given to cover around 1,000 units for the current financial year.
The State government would spend Rs 10 crore towards top-up subsidy under the scheme. The Covid-19 Assistance Package (CAP) launched by the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department would bring relief to nano and micro enterprises. First, assistance of Rs 100 crore would be available through Women SHG members.
“As per the recently-amended IPR approved by the State Cabinet, as many as 175 enterprises will be eligible for reimbursement of State GST for the period from July 1, 2017 to March 31, 2020. Under this proposal, a sum of Rs. 38.30 crore will be disbursed,” the CMO statement added.
The annual institutional maintenance charge payable by MSMEs to the IDCO which comes to around Rs 5.83 crore in respect of 5,000 MSMEs in various industrial estates has been waived. The IDCO would bear the annual institutional maintenance charge.