FinMin advises ministries to direct CPSEs to clear MSME dues

The Finance Ministry has advised administrative ministries for issuing direction to their respective CPSEs to clear pending dues of MSMEs.

During the year 2019-20, annual procurement of 121 CPSEs was Rs 1,23,494.21 crore, of which Rs 36,703.14 crore of procurement was done from MSMEs i.e. 29.72 per cent of the total procurement, the Office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a tweet.

"As on May 13, 2020, the pending payment of MSMEs by CPSEs is amounting to Rs 1,264 crore i.e. 3.44 per cent of total procurement from MSMEs.

"All the concerned Administrative Ministries of the CPSEs have again been advised on May 20 to direct their respective CPSEs to release the pending payments to MSMEs immediately in the line with the government announcement made, recently," it tweeted.

While announcing stimulus measures under the mega Rs 20 lakh crore economic package last week, Sitharaman had said pending dues of MSMEs would be cleared in 45 days to increase liquidity.