Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, with more than 6.30 crore enterprises, has emerged as a highly vibrant and dynamic sector of the Indian economy, fostering entrepreneurship and generating self-employment opportunities at comparatively lower capital cost, next only to agriculture.
At the Credit Guarantee Scheme, the review said, the Credit Guarantee for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) was introduced in the year 2000 to facilitate credit access to MSEs in the country. This scheme has been revamped in the year 2023 and the following features have been added in the scheme w.e.f. 1st April, 2023:
Enhancement of ceiling limit of Guarantee coverage from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 5 crore; the Annual Guarantee fees reduced from 0.75% to 0.37%; and Increase in the threshold limit from Rs. 5 Lakh to Rs. 10 lakh for waiver of legal action. For the period from January, 2023 to November, 2023, a total of 12.50 lakh guarantees were approved, amounting to Rs. 1.46 lakh crore.
Since inception of the scheme, a total of 580 projects have been approved and out of these, 308 projects have been completed. Out of the 580 approved projects, 40 projects, with a total project cost of nearly Rs. 560 crore, with Government of India’s assistance of Rs. 386 crore were approved during the period from January, 2023 to December, 2023.
Export Promotion front claim, the Ministry of MSME has developed a dedicated support system for export promotion from MSME Sector by establishing 59 Export Facilitation Cells (EFCs) in its field institutions, namely, MSME-Development and Facilitation Offices, MSME Technology Centres and MSME Testing Centres. Out of these 59 EFCs, 7 EFCs were established during January, 2023 to December, 2023. The EFCs are facilitating the MSMEs by disseminating information on comprehensive support to MSME exporters, understanding end-to-end process and documentation involved in exporting i.e. common export documents, transportation documents, compliance documents, certificate of origin, certificate required for shipment of specific goods, invoicing etc.