Hopeful that Budget will offer schemes to aid MSMEs: UCCI president

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Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) President, Dr Prabodh Mohanty, on Friday expressed his hope that the upcoming Union Budget 2025-26 will be progressive and target micro, Small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector, emphasising the role of the sector to make India become a $ 5 trillion economy.

UCCI, a national industry association for MSMEs, are hopeful that the government and this budget will provide some financial schemes that will help the sector

"As the President of the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we are primarily a national industry association for MSMEs. We have many expectations for the MSME sector because India is to become a 5 trillion economy and an economic powerhouse; the MSME sector needs to grow faster," Mohanty told ANI.

"So for that, we wish and we are very hopeful that this budget will be very progressive, specifically targeting the MSME sector and its all-around development," he added.

"We in the Utkal Chamber are hopeful that the government and this budget will provide some financial schemes that will help MSMEs, like the reduction of corporate tax for the MSME sector," the UCCI president said.

Mohanty stated that he wants the corporate tax to be further reduced for the MSME sector.

"The government has already moderated corporate tax earlier. However, we wish that it should be further reduced specifically for the MSME sector, like some financial incentives, tax rebates, and interest subsidies. All these financial instruments will go a long way in helping the MSME sector in India to become more vibrant, specifically in Odisha," he said.

Expressing the problems faced by the MSME sector due to procurement policies, he said, "We also want government procurement. There are situations where the MSMEs face a lot of liquidity problems because of the procurement of the industry products. So we also wish that the government needed to streamline the procurement policies and timely payments, and that will help in improving the liquidity of the industry; the working capital position will improve so that they will be in a better position to do their business seamlessly."

He further said that he wants that subsidy and incentives for innovations like digitisation, the adoption of sustainable practices like green technology, and underscoring the need for investment in adopting technology like solar power, digitisation, use of AI, and machine learning.

"The MSME sector, being small in size, is very difficult to actually put money into this digitisation, in this technological upgradation. For that, the government should provide some policies, some incentives, and some hand-holding so that they are able to adopt sustainable practices and become competitive in the global scene," he added.

Pointing out the demand of UCCI, he noted, "UCCI will request that the market linkages up market linkages globally."

He also expected the Union government to allocate funds towards the development of the logistics in Odisha. "This would also incentivise items of improvement in logistics and infrastructure, like starting in Odisha specifically, starting the container services to take to the port, the MSME products are taken to the port and it can cater to northeast Asia because it is closer; Southeast Asia is closer to Odisha. So for that also, we are hopeful that the government will provide a huge allocation towards the development of the logistics in Odisha," he added.

The budget session of the Parliament will commence today with President Droupadi Murmu addressing the joint sitting of the two Houses at around 11 am.

Following this, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Economic Survey ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget on Saturday. It would be tabled in Lok Sabha at 12 noon and at 2 PM in Rajya Sabha.

The Economic Survey document, prepared by the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance and formulated under the supervision of the chief economic adviser, gives insights into the state of the economy and various indicators of 2024-25 (April-March) and some outlook for the next fiscal.

The budget will be presented on February 1. On budget day, the Finance Minister will present the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha at 11 am.