In the works

MSMEs get a helping hand in the Budget but their challenges in financing remain, report RAGHU MOHAN & ABHIJIT LELE

- RAGHU MOHAN & ABHIJIT LELE

"The universe of companies on platforms like ours will go up. Now, as far bank funding is concerned, we will have to wait for the central bank's guidelines," says Ketan Gaikwad, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), Receivables Exchange of India (RXIL). It is his way of putting it across that measures in the Union Budget for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have many moving parts.

Consider the move to lower the turnover threshold for buyers to 250 crore from ₹ 500 crore on the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TREDS), an invoice discounting platform. It would bring an additional 22 central public sector enterprises and 7,000 companies into play, according to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. But few will go public on a long-sticking irritant: Big firms going roughshod on MSMEs on bill settlements. As for the credit side, banks have been nudged to accommodate MSMEs even if such enterprises are in the special mention account category for reasons beyond their control (this is to be supported through a guarantee from a government-promoted fund). Off record, bankers say they would not like to run afoul of the supervisory staff of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). What if such loans were to turn into non-performing assets? And given the forbearance nature of these decisions, bankers would prefer to look to the RBI for guidance.

Credit crunch