Bhubaneswar: In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the State Government has so far approved fund nearly Rs 100 crore in favour of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) units towards interest subvention under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme
In a written statement to the Assembly recently, the State MSME Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra has said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced a special Covid package for the MSME sector.
As per the package, the government has earmarked Rs 108.29 crore to provide interest subvention of 5 per cent for women-owned MSMEs and 2 per cent for men-owned MSMEs of the state to lessen the burden of interest on an additional loan extended under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).
Accordingly, during the 2020-21 financial year, the MSME department has approved a fund of Rs 99.87 crore in favour of various MSME units, of which Rs 7,54,932 have already been disbursed to 473 entrepreneurs, the Minister told the Assembly.
He further informed the House that 3207 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) units in the state have closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Replying to a question by Congress MLA from Jeypore constituency Taraprasad Bahinipati, Mishra said, “As per the available information, 3207 MSME units have been closed in the State till April 21, 2020.”
However, the data related to loss of jobs due to closure of these MSME units for the pandemic is currently not available, he said, adding, to know about the details of closed units, MSME census-2021 is going on in the state.
As per statistics given by Mishra, 567 MSME units in Balasore were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic while Ganjam and Samablpur which witnessed the closure of 484 and 321 such units respectively during the pandemic.
Similarly, 288 MSME units have been closed in Bolangir district, followed by 284 in Bhubaneswar, 272 in Sundergarh, 187 in Kalahandi, 185 in Boudh, 171 in Rayagada, 170 in Jharsuguda, 157 in Bhadrak, 50 in Nabarangpur, 45 in Gajapati and 26 in Deogarh.