NSIC may relax registration criteria for financing assistance

The relaxation of registration is expected to remain only for financial assistance and not for subsidies that the corporation offers, says NSIC Zonal GM J K Mahanta

The National Small Industries Corporation is considering relaxing the registration criteria for offering financing assistance to boost penetration of Small and Medium Enterprises.

"Currently, certain registration norms are mandatory to get NSIC financing assistance, but a thinking is going on whether it can be relaxed for greater penetration of SMEs," NSIC Zonal GM (East & Northeast) J K Mahanta said.

In West Bengal, an estimated 80 per cent of small units are not registered, he said speaking on the sidelines of a meet organised by Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and NSIC.     

He, however, said the relaxation of registration is expected to remain only for financial assistance and not for subsidies that the corporation offers.     NSIC offers financial assistance to small enterprises by providing raw material supply and financing.     "In the East and North-East zone, we extended Rs 2,200 crore financing in 2012-13 and in the current fiscal we are aiming for Rs 2,500 crore," he said.     

Meanwhile, NSIC is trying to make a consortium of enterprises in the same trade so as to facilitate orders of large PSUs.

This otherwise is not possible for the units in terms of individually meeting bidding eligibility criteria.     "We at NSIC bid on behalf of the consortium and then distribute orders among them," Mahanta said.     

It has been made mandatory for PSUs to procure at least 20 per cent from the SME sector and the business opportunity for the sector is estimated at Rs 42,000 crore.