Govt stimulus 3.0 disappointing; growth ideas missing, says MSMEs body

The Consortium of Indian Associations (CIA), a group of over 30 trade bodies and regional small and medium scale industry associations, has expressed disappointment over the third stimulus measure announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on November 12. New schemes and ideas to stimulate growth are missing, says KE Raghunathan, convener CIA.

In his quick reaction to the stimulus package, Raghunathan said that MSMEs that were expecting new ideas and schemes to boost demand for the ailing sectors received only extension in dates in addition of beneficiaries to existing schemes.  

"Most of the benefits announced today are for large corporate and foreign incoming companies to attract fresh investments. Ground level issues and problems at delivery points in the existing schemes and packages have not been recognised and resolved. Most of the allocations are keeping long-term benefits in mind while we need short-term benefits to survive," Raghunathan says.

CIA also says that the assumption that job loss was due to difficulty in payment of provident fund is incorrect. The re-employment will not happen just with taking over of PF payments, he adds.

"Disappointed as no relief was given today for the survival of MSEs, service sector, self-employed and middle income group who could not get benefits from the earlier announcements due to eligibility criteria," Raghunathan says.

In a study conducted in October, CIA found that the EMI collections in September, after moratorium period got over, had seen about 21 per cent of ECS/CHEQUE returns. Latest figures have only confirmed the fear of CIA that payment default is bound to increase in the coming months. The study had also identified liquidity crisis as one of the biggest concerns of the business owners of micro and small enterprises as they are to make payments of bonus and cash advances to staff during the festival season.

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