New Delhi, Jan 19 (Mayank Nigam) Promotion of value addition in the country by India’s trade regime, neutrality in both direct and indirect tax structure without discrimination between the nature of firms and greater willingness by banks and financial institutions to discern genuine exporters and demand less of collateral, are some of the recommendations in a knowledge paper released in a conference on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises organized by the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India on Wednesday. The paper has highlighted the need for stability in policy measures with less intervention and emphasis on neutrality on behalf of the government, amid the Ministry of MSMEs call for integrating the potential of Indian engineering MSMEs due to manufacturing cost advantage into the global value chain through credit assistance and technology upgradation.
The MSMEs engaged in manufacturing of engineering products constitute about 29 per cent of the 67 lakh MSMEs which have registered since 1 July, 2020 on the Udyam registration portal. The MSMEs contribute around 30 per cent to India’s GDP and have 50 per cent share in the country’s exports. “Atma Nirbhar announcements have focused on easing access to registering as MSMEs, easing their access to credit and providing them the much needed protection as far as global tenders are concerned,” said BB Swain, Ministry of MSME Secretary, addressing the conference. “MSME units are together capable of constituting a complete supply chain and being globally competitive because of their diverse products ranging from intermediate to final products,” Swain said. Chairman of EEPC India Mahesh Desai endorsed the MSMEs need for technological upgradation to increase India’s share in the global value chain, especially at a time when the Make-in-India initiative has set the stage by bringing ample scope for them to work with large global manufacturing firms and get access to their upgraded technology and efficient marketing techniques. Moreover, following the onset of the pandemic, large corporations in the developed world are looking at India as an alternate destination for manufacturing, Desai pointed out.