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A debate on MSMEs has come alive due to the Centre’s insistence on a regulatory reprieve for the beleaguered sector post GST and post demonetisation. The RBI at its last Board meeting that Urjit Patel chaired, promised to set up a Committee on the MSME sector by the end of this month.
There is an estimate, authenticated by the Centre, that there are around 50 million MSMEs, both registered and unregistered, employing 120 million, second only to agriculture.
Credit crunch
MSMEs contribute 6.11 per cent of manufacturing GDP and 24.6 per cent of services GDP. They also account for 16 per cent of bank lending. Around 8 per cent of credit to manufacturing micro and small enterprises and 13 per cent to medium enterprises are estimated to be gross NPAs.
MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Ageny) and the ‘59-minute loan sanction’ promises enhanced credit reach to the sector with SIDBI in the lead for both. MUDRA helped banks to push the services sector lending below ₹5 lakh significantly.
Field studies reveal that MUDRA loans have been used by several banks to swap a good number of failing micro service sector loans. There is also evidence of moral hazard following adverse selection as several enterprises are non-traceable at the location mentioned in the applications.
In the band of ₹5-10 lakh the percentage of loans is less than 20 per cent, indicating preference for a risk free portfolio and lack of interest in the manufacturing sector.
The government has put in place e-Invoice, TReDX, Samadhan, GeM to ensure prompt payment of bills from public sector undertakings and central government departments. Even so, the State PSUs and state government departments continue to delay the bills of MSMEs, leading to NPAs.
A procurement policy has been put in place to provide for preferential purchase from MSMEs, without sacrificing the conditions of quality of goods and services supplied to the buyer.
The process of loan disbursal is also cumbersome. Quite a few banks follow a multi-layered approach to lend to the sector and as a result due diligence suffers. The branch that disburses is also expected to monitor and supervise the credit but does not have the time or manpower for that.
There is hardly any communication between the entrepreneur and the credit authority until an irregularity in the account surfaces.
So given declining credit and growing NPAs, the following 12-point Agenda is a way ahead for the RBI panel:
* Thresholds in priority sector portfolio.
* Credit risk assessment of the MSMEs
* Thresholds for declaring the MSMEs as NPAs — 98 per cent of the portfolio in the fold of proprietors/family owned enterprises in the shape of partnerships, have no exit route of the sort facilitated under the IBC code or the Industrial Disputes Act.
* Revival and restructuring of sick enterprises — Innovative institutional interventions like the Industrial Health Clinics in States that carry the highest numbers of enterprises in this category.
* Cluster Development — Additional lending incentives.
* SIDBI’s Role — Review and Redefine for assuming real leadership role.
* The guarantee mechanism in the shape of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprise (CGTMSE) needs to be reviewed and redefined.
It has a role conflict with SIDBI as the latter is its promoter and at the same time secures its guarantee for the enterprises financed directly by it. CGTMSE premia rates were found to be high by their primary lending institutions and the claim settlement process unacceptably late.
* Role of credit rating agencies and effectiveness of internal credit rating tools.
* Recommendations to the Centre on policy initiatives.
* Digitisation of MSME lending and managing its transition.
* Setting up of Movable Asset Registry — Operational issues and directions.
* Setting up of Public Credit Registry — Roadmap for data integration without sacrificing data
privacy and data security.
Given the cascading effect of the large corporate manufacturing and services enterprises on the MSMEs, their healthy growth is crucial for employment and growth of the manufacturing sector as a whole.
Since MSMEs are still largely debt driven and not equity driven, it is important that access to credit should be easier, cleaner, and faster.
The writer is Adviser, Government of Telangana on Micro and Small Enterprises
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