Credit flow to SME sector at Rs 560cr in Q1

Keeping in view the credit requirement of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Orissa, credit of Rs 560 crore has been made available to the SMEs by the state government during the April-June period of this fiscal.

“Due to the efforts of our government, credit to the tune of Rs 560 crore has been made available to the SME sector in the state during the first quarter of this fiscal”, said the state chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

“The Orissa government has come out with the MSME Development Policy which aims at broad basing the growth of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of the state in all the potential sectors of our economy. The policy lays emphasis on addressing the infrastructure needs as well as flow of credit to the MSME sector”, he added.He pointed out that the policy puts thrust on the promotion of new clusters of ancillary and downstream industries at the industrial hubs of the state like Kalinganagar, Paradeep, Dhamra, Gopalpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar and Jharsuguda.

Patnaik was speaking at a workshop on Growth of SMEs in Orissa: Challenges and Prospects, organised at the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) on the occasion of its annual day.“We are keen on promoting industries in sectors like automobile components, textiles, handicrafts, handloom, leather, pharmaceuticals, gem stone cutting and polishing, fly ash and blast furnace slag based industries. The state government has taken a number of proactive steps for revitalizing the MSME sector like introduction of the MSME Development Policy and restructuring of the Orissa Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) and Orissa State Financial Corporation (OSFC)”, he said.

Baijayanta Panda, Member of Parliament from the Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency said, “Out of the Rs six lakh crore of investment proposals received by Orissa, Rs 85,000 crore of investment has already been grounded. For the past four years in a row, the GDP growth rate of Orissa has been higher than the national average.”

He said the rush of investment proposals will have a cascading effect on the development of ancillary and downstream units in the state.

Speaking on the occasion, Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, the state finance minister said, the MSMEs play an important role in broad basing industrial growth and generating employment opportunities.

Hemant Sharma, director, state industries department said, “There are about 45,000 registered MSME units in the state out of which 24,000 are functional. Of the 24,000 functional units, 90 per cent have investment on plant and machinery of less than Rs 25 lakh.” Niranjan Mohanty, president, UCCI said, the MSME sector in the state has to cope up with problems like lack of appropriate and timely support to the entrepreneurs and lack of adequate and timely finance for the MSME units.