Union Minister Narayan Rane Flags Off ICAI’s MSME Yatra in Mumbai

Shri Narayan Rane, Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises, flagged off the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s (ICAI) MSME Yatra in Mumbai. A symbolic Bus was flagged off by Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane at the Indian Merchants Chamber in Mumbai on August 18^th. The Yatra will cover 75 cities in 75 days conducting 75 meetings. It will start with the Western Region of the country followed by North, Central, East, South and culminate in Mumbai on November 18.

As part of the yatra, ICAI officials will conduct awareness programme with MSMEs  around government schemes, easy and cheaper financial options, attending to grievances, providing assistance in training and skill development, digitisation & compliance and other professional support required to set up a business. MSMEs currently contribute to more than 30% of the GDP, 48% of the exports and has created 11 crore jobs.  The objective of the programme is to enhance the capacities and capabilities of MSMEs, upgrade them professionally and make them future ready. The Yatra has been supported by State Bank of India (SBI), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC).

“ICAI MSME Yatra is a unique way of celebrating the 75^th year of the country’s independence. I admire and appreciate ICAI’s support for the MSMEs, whose development is crucial to make the country Atma Nirbhar. The support of the Chartered Accountants will accelerate the government’s development programme around MSMEs as their assistance is necessary for making government schemes simpler, digital, ensuring compliance across the country. Modi government has spent Rs 5 lakh crore in restructuring the MSMEs post covid, in which CAs have played a key role. A strong growth of the MSME sector is crucial in ensuring growth in the country’s employment, productivity, per capita income and the GDP,” said Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane.

“The government aims to increase the MSMEs export contribution to 60 % in the near future from the present 48%. The government will provide all necessary support to the entrepreneurial youth of the country. There is a need to develop and expand agro based industries, for which the Modi government has extended the subsidies in the range of 35 to 90%.”  The government has been receiving complaints from some MSMEs about banks still not supporting them despite the government schemes, which will be resolved soon, he said.

“There are 6 crore MSMEs in the country, however only 90 lakh has been registered with Udyam. Our aim is to get it completely covered in this yatra. There will be a special focus on subsidies and low interest financing to MSME members.  We are targeting to cover more than one lakh people during the yatra,” said CA Dheeraj Khandelwal, Chairman, Committee on MSME and start-ups, and the brain behind the Yatra.

Debasis Mishra, President, ICAI said, “ICAI MSME yatra will be an important milestone in the journey of ICAI since our foundation in 1949. We will be there to support the MSMEs across the sectors. The MSMEs need to take advantage of the programme. The role of ICAI has been changing purely from accounts and auditing into a role which integrates the society and the environment. This MSME Yatra reflects this movement.”

Murtuza Kachwala, Chairman, Western India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (WIRC of ICAI), said, “Chartered Accountants can be the best business partners for a MSME right from setting up business to look into the matters of compliances, finances, agreements and filing of returns. CAs will help in understand the pain points, going through Regulations, training and support. During the ICAI-MSME Yatra, CAs are going to handhold and assist individuals from small towns to come together and gain knowledge on how to get the business registered, what are the best finance options, what should be the type of the entity to be created, compliances required etc.”

Mr. Pravin Raghavendra, Deputy Managing Director, SBI, said “By associating with the ICAI-MSME Yatra, we will support the MSMEs with ideal financing options. There is a strong potential in the area of MSME training, reskilling and onboarding. The programme aims to bring maximum MSMEs online. Today, more than 80% of MSMEs are devoid of formal credit facilities, which needs to be restored.”

Mr. Sudatta Mandal, Deputy Managing Director, SIDBI, said “We acknowledge assistance of CAs in getting MSMEs Udyam registered, which is mandatory. SIDBI is also working with the government to facilitate Udyam registrations. We have played an important role in digital lending. SIDBI is also working on a model on credit rating for the MSMEs which will enable formal baking credit.”

Manoj Kumar Singh, Zonal Manager, NSIC said, “We provide MSME assistance in the areas such as marketing, technology, trading and finance at competitive rates. NSIC provides training, incubation centres and VC fund for the MSMEs. We have features such as Single point registration and MSME global mart.”

Anant Singhania, President, Indian Merchants Chamber, said, “Litigations and dispute resolutions have become a huge stubling block for the growth of the MSMES, which needs to be resolved by setting up alternate dispute resolution mechanism by the government. IMC has set up an international Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanism. MSMEs could take advantage of the same.”