At a roundtable event held recently in the capital, FISME tabled the current MSME issues plaguing the industry in a presentation to ‘Friends of MSME’ in Parliament (a group of members of Parliament across parties).
Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General, FISME highlighted how small entrepreneurs face a lot of bottlenecks while complying with GST provisions.
Rajendra Agrawal, Member of Parliament from the Meerut constituency said, “The objective of this dialogue is clear – to resolve the challenges faced by MSMEs, who are integral to our economy. Any issues discussed, including the hurdles encountered by MSME sellers, will be shared with the relevant ministry and officials for resolution. The PM’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat cannot be achieved without the support of the MSME sector. We urge MSMEs to present their case, enabling us to advocate on their behalf in the Parliament and prompt the government to consider and address their concerns.”
The presentation also spoke about a study undertaken by FISME on Meerut in December which identified strategies on how to quadruple the district’s GDP in 4-5 years. Additional growth, it stated, could come from investments, relocation of labour from agriculture to skilled jobs, greater participation of women and reforms in local administration. The study delved into the multifaceted aspects of Meerut’s economy, offering an analysis of its existing and potential growth drivers, employment landscape and the outreach of government schemes.
FISME also spoke about reducing the cost of litigation for the MSME sector via arbitrator appointments getting expedited and discouraging frivolous challenges in higher courts. Besides this, the industry body launched a Grievance Redressal Portal for MSMEs to relay their banking concerns. Affirming some of these issues, Mamatha Anand, Partner – Indirect Taxes, Deloitte noted how MSMEs are an essential part of the Indian economy as they contribute 30% to the GDP of the nation. “Apart from government subsidies, quick loan approvals, lower electricity costs, and accessibility to MSME clusters, from a GST standpoint, the compensation scheme that allows MSME players to opt for fixed rates rather than the regular GST mechanism is beneficial.”
Among some of the recommendations that came up at the roundtable included permitting digital B2C transaction invoices that would aid MSMEs in cost reduction and contribute to minimizing carbon footprint, ensuring automation of the cash balance refund, issuing circular explaining the business model of the e-commerce seller and offering comprehensive training to tax officers, equipping them with a nuanced understanding of the new-age e-commerce business model.
