Bhubaneswar: In a relief to MSMEs facing business setbacks due to COVID pandemic, the Central government on Tuesday extended Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to March, 2023.
Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced extension of ECLGS upto March, 2023 with guaranteed cover extended by Rs 50,000 crore.
The total financial support by the Centre to the marginal, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which have been affected by the pandemic, has not gone up to Rs 5 lakh crore. The additional amount has been earmarked for hospitality sector.
ECLGS was introduced as part of COVID relief package for MSMEs in 2020. It is one of the credit schemes in an emergency for which the government provides 100% guarantee coverage. The initial fund for ECLGS was set for Rs 3 lakh crore under Guaranteed Emergency Credit Line.
Sitharaman also announced that MSMEs such as Udyam, e-shram, NCS and Aseem portals will be inter-linked and their scope widened. They can now perform as portals with live organic databases providing G-C, B-C & B-B services such as credit facilitation, enhancing entrepreneurial opportunities.
A fund will be set up with blended capital raised under co-investment model facilitated through NABARD to finance startups in agriculture and rural enterprises for farm produce value chain.
Announcing that Ease of Doing Business 2.0 will be launched, she said Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act will be replaced with new legislation for development of enterprise and hubs. It will cover the existing industrial enclaves and enhance the competitiveness of exports.
In order to facilitate domestic production of 280 GW of solar capacity by 2030, the minister announced additional allocation of Rs 19,500 crore for PLI for manufacturing high-efficiency modules with priority to fully integrate manufacturing units to solar PV modules.
Effective Capital Expenditure of the Central Govt has been estimated at Rs 10.68 lakh crore which is about 4.1% of GDP.
For promoting Aatmanir Bharat and reducing dependence on imports of defence equipment, Sitharaman announced 68% of the capital procurement budget for Defence for domestic industry to promote. This is up from the 58% of the last fiscal.
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