5.37 lakh units in MSME sector sick as of March: Giriraj

As many as 5.37 lakh units in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) were sick as of March this year, Parliament was informed today.
As per provisional data complied by the Reserve Bank, the number of sick MSMEs in March was 5,37,286, Minister of State for MSME Giriraj Singh said.
The ministry has already notified a 'Framework for revival and Rehabilitation of MSMEs' for the purpose of facilitating the promotion and development of MSMEs, he added.
Under this, any enterprise can seek revival and rehabilitation benefit through a committee constituted by the banks with representatives from state government, experts, regional or zonal head of the bank.

As on March this year, the maximum number of sick units were in Uttar Pradesh (84,063) followed by Gujarat (49,383), Maharashtra (49,293) and Karnataka (38,277).
Further, he said that to overcome the problem of delayed payments, the ministry has established Micro and Small Enterprise Facilitation Councils.

In a separate reply, he said that as many as 3,42,090 persons have registered on the employment exchange portal as on November 23.
In a separate reply, Singh said the ministry has received representation from Indian Small Scale Paint Association regarding mandatory registration of paint industry using biocides.
"Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has constituted a sub-committee for revisiting the guidelines for registration of paint industry.

"An interim arrangement has been made for giving interim permission for use of biocides in paints, import of quantity based biocide and indigenous manufacture of biocides," he added.