Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 30: Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Jammu, conducted the 50th Empowered Committee Meeting on MSMEs for the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh on Tuesday through digital mode.
The meeting was chaired by Kamal P Patnaik, Regional Director, RBI, J&K and Ladakh, and was also attended by Sandeep Mittal, General Manager, RBI, senior officers of major public and private sector banks in the State; Director Industries and Commerce, Jammu, Ms Anoo Malhotra, Ms Tazayun Mukhtar Kawos, Joint Director, Industries and Commerce, Kashmir, Abhishek Chandra, Functional Manager, Industries and Commerce, Ladakh and representatives from SIDBI and PHDCCI.
At the outset, Sandeep Mittal, General Manager, RBI, informed the house that meeting is being convened online due to the prevalent COVID-19 situation and provided an overview of the objectives of the meeting. The Regional Director, RBI, in his address stressed on the importance of the MSME sector to the Indian economy, especially their contribution to GDP and employment generation.
Highlighting various studies showing prevalence of informal finance in the MSME sector due to their unorganized nature, he exhorted the banks to step up their efforts in targeting the MSME sector as a significant and profitable business opportunity.
He explained in detail about the recent measures announced by RBI i.e., Resolution Framework 2.0 targeting these group of borrowers wherein a special window of one-time restructuring has been extended and exposure threshold has been enhanced to Rs. 50 crore for those accounts which have not been restructured under any of the earlier restructuring frameworks.
He urged the participants to step up awareness initiatives so that both prospective and established entrepreneurs are well informed about the policies and schemes targeting the MSME sector. Highlighting the low NPA levels in MSME accounts as compared to big corporates, he stressed that lending to MSME remains a profitable venture for all the banks. The Committee reviewed the progress of banks in extending credit to the MSE sector and issues being faced by them, status of CGTMSE covered cases, status of NPAs in the MSE sector, progress on the structured mechanism for flow of credit to the MSE sector, revival and rehabilitation of sick units, identification of unrecognized clusters for MSE, implementation of financial education programmes for the sector, etc.
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