TLI Staff
New Delhi: Even as government has been patting its back for ‘presenting Budget for building a developed India’, a survey carried out by MSME trade body Consortium of Indian Associations (CIA) has found that most of the small players in the sector are disappointed with Union Budget presented on February 1.
Claiming that the survey covered the opinion of 1,08,500 self-employed across various segments, the CIA suggested setting up of an independent Ministry for self-employed and micro business.
The industry body said that this year the ‘mega survey’ saw active support and participation of over 25 associations across India and the survey was sponsored by Naturals.
Noting survey findings, the CIA said that as many as 87% of the MSME respondents feel the budget is disappointing or a big letdown or have no comments.
As many as 76% of the respondents said they are not making a profit currently and 45% feel there is no “ease of doing” feeling that exists in starting or running or closing or in their living style. Many expressed “Toughness in doing business”.
Only 21% of the respondents felt that Government of India supported MSMEs adequately during covid situation.
Commenting on survey findings, K.E. Raghunathan, convenor of CIA and former national president of All India Manufacturers’ Organization said that CIA has provided vital suggestions and modifications required on several initiatives taken by the Central and State Governments over the past three years for the benefit of MSMEs.
“As a result, we realized that a data-backed survey would help consolidate the feedback from this sector, to bring out the pain points and provide solutions and a way forward to revive the sector. Our survey in June 2020 had over 45,000 respondents. The survey in July 2021 had over 85,000 respondents and the present survey has over 1,08,500 respondents across India.”
The CIA has proposed to amend the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 to strengthen the state facilitation councils.
“Micro Small Enterprises Facilitation Centers should be given more power to conduct their proceedings in a transparent and time-bound manner and enforce payment of the specified interest to the aggrieved MSMEs. The government also needs to make changes to the GST Act to make it SME friendly. Many of the central government schemes are not propagated or used by State Governments thereby limiting the beneficiaries,” it said.
The industry body has decided to submit the data-backed report and findings to the Prime Minister, Union Ministers and all state Chief Ministers for their intervention to boost MSME sector.