KTR seeks Centre's balm to shore up MSME sector

Hyderabad: Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Wednesday urged the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to support the Medium Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) sector established in Telangana.

Rama Rao on Wednesday wrote a letter to Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "While the incidence of Covid is declining sharply in the country and the chances of a modest economic recovery may be possible towards the fourth quarter of the year, the MSME sector still requires support," Rama Rao said.

He said that looking at the seriousness of loss of business and declining revenues of the MSMEs, it would be justified if the loans availed by the MSMEs were given a moratorium till March 31, 2022, without any accrual of interest during the moratorium period," Minister KTR said.

The Minister stated that this support would provide a big relief to the MSMEs and can help them get back to normalcy. He highlighted that Hyderabad and surrounding districts, were major hubs for manufacturing for the past five decades, with a predominance of MSME industries. But due to pandemic-induced restrictions and disruptions since last year, the MSMEs have been badly affected, he said. Though the Government of Telangana did not put any restrictions on industrial activities during the recent second wave of the pandemic, the restrictions in surrounding States had a major impact on the functioning of the industries in Telangana," the Minister added.

KTR said that many of them faced challenges in the procurement of raw materials and sending out finished products to their customers. He also pointed out that another reason for the slowdown of industrial activities was the shortage of labour that typically comes to Telangana from other States. He strongly appealed to the Centre to take up supportive measures in favour of the MSMEs.