Government exploring new financial lending institutions to support small-scale units: Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister for MSMEs and Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Monday said that the government is exploring new financial lending institutions to support small-scale units in terms of financial support.

Gadkari said that the government is working towards strengthening the NBFCs which will help small businesses to avail easy credit in the coming time.

He was speaking at a meeting via video conferencing with the members of Calcutta Chamber of Commerce on the impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs and the measures taken to address the challenges at hand.

Addressing the members, Gadkari reiterated that these were trying times as "we are waging a war against COVID-19 pandemic as well as the economic instability caused by it".

He requested all the stakeholders to work in tandem and urged the industry to maintain a positive attitude to tide over this crisis.

According to an official release, the minister also stressed on usage of masks, stizers and maintaining social distancing.

Referring to the special economic package, he said various support measures have been announced for MSMEs such as collateral-free automatic loan and distress fund.

He said that all these measures will provide the required support to MSMEs to face the current economic challenges.

The Minister also informed them that there has been restructuring of 6 lakh MSMEs till March 2020 and the ministry is aiming to cover an additional 25 lakh until December 2020.

He added that the current contribution of MSMEs in export is 48 per cent, which may be increased to 60 per cent.

Gadkari mentioned that special focus towards export enhancement was the need of the hour and there is a need to reduce the cost of production and logistics to become economically viable.

The minister shared that MSME Ministry is working on two booklets to cover details about the last three year's export and import.

( With inputs from ANI )