Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao today urged the Centre to "redefine" its Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme to help Telangana's industrial sector.
In a letter addressed to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the minister said that the scheme was not of much use to the industrial sector.
"Due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, many medium and small-sized industries are today facing losses. They are struggling to continue production and keep their shutters open. There is, therefore, an urgent need to redefine the Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme so that it can extend its support to this struggling sector," he wrote in his letter.
"Though Rs 20 lakh crore packages were announced under this scheme, the industrial sector failed to get any help. This, even when about 80% of MSMEs suffered difficulties and 25% incurred heavy losses of revenues," KTR claimed.
He also said that though the Centre had offered Rs 3 lakh crore under a guaranteed emergency fund system for the sector, industries were unable to benefit from this as they "did not get any financial assistance".
After having highlighted the crisis facing the MSMEs, Rao reiterated his plea and added that there was a need to provide help to the industrial sector through Centrally-provided packages. He then asked the Centre to ensure that its production-linked incentive scheme helped the MSMEs sustain and develop themselves by setting up a stable and cost-effective supply chain mechanism.
filed in:Telangana, K T Rama Rao, Industry & Business, Centre, MSME