42nd meeting of Empowered Committee on MSME held

14/12/2018

JAMMU, DEC 13: Reserve Bank of India, Jammu, conducted the 42nd Empowered Committee Meeting on MSMEs for the State of Jammu and Kashmir on December 13, 2018 at RBI, Jammu. The meeting was chaired by Shri Thomas Mathew, Regional Director, RBI, Jammu, and attended by the controlling heads of J&K Bank, SBI, PNB, and other major banks in the State, representative from SLBC convenor bank, Director, Industries and Commerce, General Manager, SIDCO, representative from MSME-DI, and representatives from various trade associations.
At the outset, the General Manager, RBI, Satya Narain welcomed the participants and provided an overview of the objectives of the meeting. The Regional Director, RBI, in his address stressed on the importance of the MSME sector to the Indian economy, especially their contribution to GDP and employment generation. Comparing with other economies, he said that the sector has tremendous scope as the penetration of MSMEs in India is still on the lower side and a large portion of these units depend on finance from the informal sector. He expressed concern regarding the slow growth of the sector in the State and asked the banks to step up their efforts towards targeting MSME sector. Highlighting recent surveys and reports, he underscored the need for technology driven approach for addressing the issues of the sector. He urged the participants to step up their awareness initiatives so that both prospective and established entrepreneurs are aware about the policies and schemes targeting the MSME sector. The committee reviewed the progress of banks in extending credit to the MSE sector and issues being faced by them, status of CGTMSE covered cases, status of NPAs in the MSE sector, progress on the structured mechanism for flow of credit to the MSE sector, revival and rehabilitation of sick units, identification of unrecognized clusters for MSE, implementation of financial education programmes for the sector, etc. Information about SIDBI run platforms and schemes such as the Udyami Mitra portal, CGTMSE, and Certified Credit Counsellor scheme was also provided to the banks, and they were encouraged to sensitise their branch level staff in this regard. Apart from these, the Director, Industries and Commerce as well as the trade association representatives discussed issues related to access of finance by MSME units. The banks assured the house that they are committed to empowering the MSME sector by providing in-time and adequate financing and apprised the house regarding the initiatives taken by them in this direction. They also assured to promptly address the concerns raised by the State administration and industry associations. The bank representatives sought the support of associations in recovery of NPAs to which the associations offered their full support. The participants assured to work closely with all stakeholders for nurturing and supporting the sector for the overall development of the State.

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