Lucknow: Utilising the facility extended by the Rs 20 lakh crore ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ package announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in May, the Uttar Pradesh government has roped in the banks to extend the credit of Rs 15,000 crore to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the short term to overcome the working capital woes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
UP government was aiming to help a large pool of MSME under the ‘Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme’, which was a part of the Rs 20 lakh crore package.
While 80 percent of the state’s MSME has already started working at 80-100 percent of their capacities after the lifting of the lockdown, efforts are being made to help the remaining units resume operations quickly.
“We are targeting to disburse loans worth Rs 15,000 crore to the MSMEs, for which the role of the commercial banks would be imperative,” UP Additional Chief Secretary, MSME, and Export Promotion, Navneet Sehgal said here on Friday.
In this regard, he had a virtual interaction, organised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday, with bankers regarding the loans to MSMEs, post the Covid-19 challenges, and the steps needed to provide credit to the sector. The state government sought the co-operation of commercial banks even the overall growth of MSME in UP was better compared to other states.
“We have also identified industrial clusters under the One District, One Product (ODOP) scheme across the 75 districts of the state,” Sehgal said, adding the banks should select ODOP products and handicrafts for providing the entrepreneurs with easy credit. The ODOP scheme was launched in 2018 to promote indigenous industries, and handicrafts by facilitating state support in terms of setting up of new enterprises, bank credit, and marketing.
He lamented MSME units were still deprived of funding under the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ package. The state has now decided to collate the details of MSMEs to resolve their grievances and provide them the credit line. Of the total 9,30,348 industrial units, according to the database of the UP MSME department, about 8,18,000 units are now functional. More than 70 percent or 583,000 operational units are working at 80-100 percent plant load factor (PLF), thus indicating a robust revival of their supply chains.
Similarly, 182,951 units and 34,515 units are working at the PLF of 50-80 percent and 30-50 percent, respectively. These operational industrial plants spanning different categories employ more than 5 million workers. Most of these units are located in the known industrial hubs of the state, including Moradabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Jhansi, Lucknow, Bhadohi etc. The state government is looking to double MSME exports in three years to Rs 2.40 Lakh crore. During 2018-19 a
