Currently, the Government of India has taken a series of measures for solving out the long-standing problems of MSMEs. Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister has announced under the AtmaNirbhar Bharat package that all the Government entities should make such payments within 45 days.
The Ministry of MSME followed up this announcement vigorously and took up the matter with the Central Ministries and Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and State Governments. Particularly very active follow up has been done with the Heads of CPSEs.
A dedicated online reporting format got made for reporting the monthly payments and monthly pendency so that the reporting process could get made easy, regular and seamless. According to some reports, more than Rs.6800 Crores was paid by the Ministries and CPSEs since the last three months only. It is coming out that almost three-fourth of the monthly dues got paid during the same month by most of the Central Ministries and CPSEs. The pending amounts are expected to be in the normal course of business and below 45 days.
Also, the same type of online reporting system is devised and put in place for the States’ reporting and actively follow up is also going on with the State Governments for payment and regular reports.
Department of Expenditure has issued an OM to the effect that the buyer organization will have to pay penal interest of 1% per month for delayed payment beyond prescribed timeline till the date of such payment, which is one another intervention by the Govt.
Yet another landmark intervention, on request of Ministry of MSME, Government in Finance Ministry has waived the charges for on-boarding the TReDS platforms. This platform has been designed for bill discounting of the MSMEs against such supplies where payments are awaited. It is to be noted that earlier MSMEs were supposed to pay an on-boarding charge of Rs. 10,000/- to the concerned exchanges who are part of the TReDS mechanism. Government has now waived the on-boarding charges for the MSMEs till March 2021. Most of the CPSEs and several private companies are already on-board the TReDS mechanism. MSME Ministry has requested the also to do so.
For providing the MSMEs facility of ease of business the Ministry’s portal for new registration of Udyam (https://udyamregistration.gov.in/) is being seamlessly integrated with TReDS and GeM. Therefore, it would be just enough and useful to register as MSME on the Government portal. Integration with TReDS and GeM mechanisms will happen automatically. To re-iterate, registration as MSME/Udyam is online and free of cost. It is also paperless and fully based on self-declaration. No proof or documents are required.
The Ministry of MSMEs re-iterates and alerts the businesses and entrepreneurs to beware of fake websites who are charging money in the name of facilitating registration. It is requested that the registration should be done on and through the Government website only.
Also, it was stated that the MSME Development Act of 2006 provides that such dues should be paid within 45 days. However, it is seen that MSME suppliers of goods and services do not receive their due payments within the stipulated time. Public and private entities do cross this time limit and hence they cause hardship to the MSMEs.
With Warm Regards,
CL Bureau.
