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With only about a month left for lakhs of MSMEs to technologically upgrade and prepare to catch up with GST roll-out on July 1, MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra said here on Friday that he was also aware of concerns over “high” tax rates in some sectors. “Some representations have been made to the Finance Minister. He may consider these,” Mishra told reporters, adding that “changes can also be made once the Goods and Service tax (GST) rolls out.”
In the past few days, several medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs), such as in the plywood, plastics, marble & granite, cosmetics and other sectors have aired their anxieties over losing out to cheap Chinese goods due to higher tax slabs.
Meanwhile, highlighting three years of his Ministry’s work, Mishra disagreed that job generation was poor. “Many unorganised sector jobs are not reflected,” in surveys, he said, adding that 11 lakh jobs had been created in three years under the Prime Minister’s Employment Guarantee Programme (PMEGP). Also, Khadi & Village Industries institutions have provided employment to more than 11 lakh persons each year in the last three years, he said.
When asked about the impact of demonetisation on the MSME sector, Mishra said “Initially there was a problem, but that eased later. Now, more and more people are being hired by MSMEs.”
The Minister also said that over 30 lakh Udyog Aadhar memorandum registrations had been done, and ₹1,027. 82 crore subsidy was released to 16,304 MSEs during 2014-17 under the Credit-linked Capital Subsidy Scheme. Under the Credit Guarantee Trust Fund, a total of 13,69,527 proposals with credit guarantee of ₹61,155.73 crore have been approved.
2 more Samsung schoolsEarlier in the day, the MSME Ministry signed a memorandum of industry (MoU) with Samsung India to renew its partnership for 10 existing schools being run across the country. Also two new schools will be added at Bengaluru and Jamshedpur, a Samsung India release said. The company also announced the MSME-Samsung Technical School Scholarship programme for girls and differently-abled trainees.
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