Moonis Rehman | 12 Feb, 2026
The noise is settled; it's done and dusted. The experts have left the news studios ,and reality has started to sink in. It's been more than a week now since the Union Budget was announced. We heard a slew of sops for the MSME sector. Now it is time to put pen to paper.
In another development, the US-India trade deal was also finally inked, bringing cheers to the community, especially to our exporters. However the fine print of the deal is still clouded in ambiguity and will take time to get the real picture.
Now back to the recently announced Union Budget, without doubt this year the focus was on bolstering MSMEs through a dedicated ₹10,000 crore growth fund to foster what was termed as "future champions," alongside a ₹2,000 crore top-up for the Self Reliant India Fund. These are, to say the least, significant and welcome initiatives.
Other initiatives for the sector included, digital integration of GST with TReDS and GeM, infrastructure risk guarantees, and enhanced export incentives for various sectors specially for leather and textiles.
Meanwhile the introduction of an Infrastructure Risk Guarantee Fund to help small businesses secure business loans without collateral for large projects is another great move.
Linking the GST system with the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) and Government e-Marketplace (GeM) to improve liquidity, ease payment cycles, and increase access to government contracts is no doubt an excellent move that can save a lot of time.
Additionally, the government announced increased duty drawbacks and tax benefits for specific export-oriented MSMEs, including a 3% duty drawback on certain export sectors.
If you ask me, I would say all the initiatives announced are great, but the implementation is another story all together. Unless small businesses can benefit from these announcements they will just remain on paper. Only time will tell.
