The Union Budget presented by Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, yesterday has a number of proposals relating to the MSME sector. Following is the text of the speech delivered by the Finance Minister: SMEs form the backbone of our Economy. They account for a large portion of our industrial output and employment. The bulk of service sector enterprises are also SMEs. Most of these SMEs are Own Account Enterprises. Most importantly a majority of these enterprises are owned or run by SCs, STs and OBCs. Financing to this sector is of critical importance, particularly as it benefits the weakest sections. There is need to examine the financial architecture for this sector. I propose to appoint a committee with representatives from the Finance Ministry, Ministry of MSME, RBI to give concrete suggestions in three months.Promotion of entrepreneurship and start-up Companies remains a challenge. While there have been some efforts to encourage, one principal limitation has been availability of start-up capital by way of equity to be brought in by the promoters. In order to create a conducive eco-system for the venture capital in the MSME sector it is proposed to establish a ` 10,000 crore fund to act as a catalyst to attract private Capital by way of providing equity, quasi equity, soft loans and other risk capital for start-up companies.
To establish technology centre network to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and agro-industry, setting up a fund with a corpus of `200 crore is proposed. The definition of MSME will be reviewed to provide for a higher capital ceiling. A programme to facilitate forward and backward linkages with multiple value chain of manufacturing and service delivery will also be put in place. Entrepreneur friendly legal bankruptcy framework will also be developed for SMEs to enable easy exit. A nationwide “District level Incubation and Accelerator Programme” would be taken up for incubation of new ideas and providing necessary support for accelerating entrepreneurship.
Fiscal incentives
Cathode ray TVs are used by weaker sections who cannot afford to buy more expensive flat panel TVs. Proposed to exempt colour picture tubes from basic customs duty to make cathode ray TVs cheaper. The duty concession will help revive manufacturing of TVs in the SME sector and create employment opportunities. At the same time, to encourage production of LCD and LED TVs below 19 inches in India, Proposed to reduce the basic customs duty on LCD and LED TV panels of below 19 inches from 10 percent to Nil. Further, to encourage manufacture of LCD and LED TV panels, Proposed to exempt from basic customs duty specified inputs used in their manufacture. As a measure of relief to the footwear industry, most of which are in SME sector, Proposed to reduce the excise duty from 12 percent to 6 percent on footwear of retail price exceeding Rs. 500 per pair but not exceeding Rs. 1,000 per pair. Footwear of retail price up to Rs. 500 per pair will continue to remain exempted.