Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasised on getting on growth track by stabilising the economy during this tiring time of Covid-19 pandemic, while addressing a virtual conference on the occasion of completion of 125 years of industry chamber CII. “Yes, we will get our growth back,” he said in his address.
Modi said that despite the pandemic decelerating India’s growth, the country has entered into the unlocking phases wherein a large part of the economy has resumed operations. He said that it was his government’s highest priority to strengthen the economy for which a slew of measures were announced recently that would benefit the nation in the longer run.
These decisions, PM said, will make India future ready.
Talking about APMC reforms, Modi said that the farmers will now get their rights back to sell their produce wherever they want in any part of the country. Similarly the agriculture produce stored in warehouses can now be sold through electronic trading. This will create opportunities for agri business and help in employment.
Earlier, the Cabinet meeting chaired by Modi decided for further upward revision of MSME definition.
In a statement, the government has said that in the package announcement, the definition of micro manufacturing and services unit was increased to Rs 1 crore of investment and Rs 5 crore of turnover. The limit of small unit was increased to Rs 10 crore of investment and Rs 50 crore of turnover. Similarly, the limit of a medium unit was increased to Rs 20 crore of investment and Rs 100 crore of turnover.
An official statement by the PMO reads, “It may be noted that this revision was done after 14 years since the MSME Development Act came into existence in 2006. After the package announcement on May 13, 2020, there were several representations that the announced revision is still not in tune with market and pricing conditions and it should be further revised upwards. Keeping in mind these representations, Prime Minister decided to further increase the limit for medium manufacturing and service units. Now it will be Rs 50 crore of investment and Rs 250 crore of turnover. It has also been decided that the turnover with respect to exports will not be counted in the limits of turnover for any category of MSME units whether micro, small or medium.”
Meanwhile, Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has written to the state governments to review the power tariffs to give respite to food processing industries. She told the state governments to consider dual nature of food processing being supplier of food to consumer as well as buyer of farm produce, the processing industries play vital role in the economy.
A large part of the food processing industry depends on cold chains, which needs to run round the clock and because of lockdown the cold chain operators are facing liquidity crunch. The industry representatives have urged for a review into the electricity charges based on actual consumption, Badal told the state governments.