The small and medium enterprises exchanges of both the BSE and the NSE has cut the annual listing fees by 25 per cent to facilitate SME listing and raising capital in an efficient manner.

The revised lower listing fee structure will be applicable for both companies already listed and those which are in the process of listing.

The rebate in fee comes close on the heels of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing several measures to rescue the ailing micro, small and medium enterprises of the country.

As part of the ₹20-lakh crore financial package, the government plans to infuse ₹50,000 crore equity into MSMEs through a fund of funds to be set up separately.

With an initial corpus of ₹10,000 crore, the yet to be set up ‘Mother Fund’ will leverage and raise ₹50,000 crore through ‘daughter funds’ at different stages to infuse capital in MSMEs for expansion. In this process, the government has directed MSMEs to list on the stock exchanges for transparent valuation and efficient monitoring.

Ajay Thakur, Head — BSE SME and Start-ups, said the country is going through an unprecedented crisis caused by Covid pandemic and in these challenging times, it is the responsibility of the exchange to support the SMEs which is the backbone of Indian economy.

A move to revive

The measure taken by the exchange along with the bold steps taken by the government will help SMEs revive and encourage them to go for listing on the platform, he added.

NSE Emerge said small enterprises have been hit hard by the stoppage of economic activity and some of them are under enormous financial stress to meet their obligations.

During these difficult times, NSE is committed to supporting the government in the nation’s battle against the pandemic and in providing assistance to alleviate the difficulties faced by SMEs, it said.

BSE SME has 322 companies listed on its platform and of this 79 have migrated to the main board.

The 322 companies have raised ₹3,279 crore from the market and command a market capitalisation of ₹15,865 crore. Five companies have raised ₹19 crore by listing on the BSE Start-ups platform and has market capitalisation of ₹76 crore.

Similarly, the NSE Emerge had helped 209 companies raise over ₹3,200 crore.

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