The Budget Session of Parliament will kick off from January 31 and the Union Budget will be presented in the House on February 1. The Finance Minister has already been holding pre-budget consultations with all the stakeholders and also taking suggestions from them. More recently, the minister held pre-budget consultations with BJP leaders in which representatives from 25 states participated virtually. So, the stage is set for Budget 2022.

The Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector is optimistic about the upcoming Budget. Although this sector has been recovering from the worst phase of the pandemic and the Centre has quite eagerly lent a helping hand to it during these days, experts point out that the sector still needs a lot of support and Budget 2022 is an opportunity to give a renewed boost to our MSMEs ravaged by Covid-19 across the country.

Credit availability and accessibility of funds is one of the major issues that needs to be addressed. Experts point out that it should be done in every possible way, including incentives, simplified taxation and investment. In India, penetration of organised credit to the MSME sector is quite low, and the government should make the best of every opportunity in this direction. It is also important to make credit claiming easier under MSME-centric schemes like ECLGS.

Another comprehensive area is ease of doing business. While a lot has been done in the past few years in this direction, efforts to streamline approvals, rules and regulations at all levels are still necessary. Emphasis should be given on a single point of contact to reduce cost, delays, and turnaround time of documentation processes. At the same time, concrete steps need to be taken to help MSMEs use available digital platforms and facilities provided by the government.