SME Times News Bureau | 18 Dec, 2019
Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin
Gadkari approved the changes in the Interest Subvention Scheme for MSMEs, in a
meeting held in New Delhi to review the functioning of the scheme.
The improvements are set to provide momentum
giving fillip to the MSME sector. The Interest Subvention Scheme for MSMEs was
launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in November, 2018.
The modifications in operational guidelines
carried out are based on suggestions made by various stakeholders, including
banks and lending institutions who had brought to light operational
difficulties which were hindering a smooth rollout of the scheme.
The modifications include:
Settlement of claims based on internal /
concurrent auditor certificate and submission of statutory auditor’s certificate
once by June 30, 2020
Acceptance of claims in multiple lots for a given
half year by eligible institutions;
Requirement of Udyog Aadhar Number (UAN) is
dispensed with for units eligible for GST.
Unit not required to obtain GST, may either
submit Income Tax Permanent Account Number
(PAN) or their loan account must be categorised as a MSME by the concerned
eligible institutions;
The last date of submission of claims for
half-yearly period ended March, 31, 2019 has now been extended till
December 31, 2019.
Trading activities without UAN have been made
eligible.
50% of the estimated claim amounts may be
released to eligible institutions (at least to those belonging to Public Sector
Banks), based on data / information to be furnished by them and the
Utilisation Certificate duly certified by respective statutory auditor to
submitted by June 2020.
Speaking about the decision Gadkari said, “It is
expected that the modifications in the scheme guidelines will lead to
fulfilment of objectives of the scheme, i.e. to increase productivity in MSMEs
through access to credit at reduced cost”.
He also added that the Government is committed to
enhancing credit to MSME sector and the implementation of the scheme is being
closely monitored to help MSMEs get incremental credit of upto Rs. one crore
with Interest Subvention of 2% by Government.