AP Department of Industries Clarifies on Misleading Article on MSMEs

25 Feb, 2023 21:19 IST|Sakshi Post

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh Department of Industries has stated that an article was published under the title ‘Parishramika Raayatila Jaadedi’ in Eenadu newspaper on 25.02.2023. The Department of Industries has categorically clarified that the information contained in the article is incorrect and unsubstantiated.

Clarifying on the misleading claims, the Department of Industries stated that the entire episode of backlog incentives is due to the fact that the previous government had left the backlog of Rs 3,409 Crore incentives to the industrial units, adversely affecting the business environment in the State. It also said that the Industrial sector was badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Factoring the hardships faced by the MSMEs during the Covid-19 pandemic and the long pending incentives, the State Government had released Rs 46.00 Crore during 2019-20 and Rs 993.30 Crore during 2020-21under ‘ReSTART’ Package which helped about 8,000 MSMEs survive the economic onslaught brought down by the pandemic. The state government has been releasing the incentives to MSMEs in August every year to help them to run their operations smoothly.

Later, an amount of Rs 666.86 Crore of incentives were released during 2021-22 as per the calendar. The incentives were scheduled to be delivered in August 2022, however, due to the proposed Global Investment Summit in March 2023, it was decided to release the incentives in February 2023 instead. However, owing to the model code of conduct for Biennial Elections to the Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh from Local Authorities, the release has been put on hold. It’s worth mentioning here the state government is committed to releasing incentives as promised once the model code of conduct is lifted.

Support extended to iIndustries during Covid-19 induced lockdown:
•   Paid all the sanctioned but outstanding incentives to the MSMEs from 2014-15 to enable them to pay the salary/wage dues to the employees and to meet the working capital requirements
•   Waived fixed demand charges towards Power for 3 months
•   Deferred fixed demand charges towards Power, for Large and Mega Industries without interest or penal charges for a period of 3 months.
•   Enabled and permitted the essential supply industries and continuous process industries to operate

Assessment under Ease of Doing Business
• Previously, in Ease of Doing Business ranking, the views of industrialists on the success of the implementation of reforms were awarded only 10% marks and now, 100% scoring weightage is given to the perception survey of Industrialists.
• AP stood No.1 in the country in the 2020 ranking, scoring 97.89 percent marks, though the survey was conducted while the industrial sector was experiencing severe hardship as a result of the COVID pandemic.

Policies for promotion of MSMEs
o   For the upliftment of the SC/ST Entrepreneurs under Industrial Development Policy 2020-23, YSR Jagananna Badugu Vikasam – a special package incentives announced and so far 9631 SC ST Entrepreneurs units for Rs.661.58 Cr. Sanctioned. Out of these 2207 SC Entrepreneurs received Rs.111.08 Cr and 424 ST Entrepreneurs received Rs. 24.31 Cr.
o   Under MSE – CDP (Micro, Small Enterprises – Cluster Development Programme), since 2019, 58 Clusters identified, 06 sanctioned, 46 DPRs prepared ready for sanction and 06 are under progress.
o   Three districts are identified as District Export Hubs and District Export Action Plans prepared, viz. Visakhapatnam, Rajamahendravaram and Guntur districts.
o   Under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme(PMEGP) during 2022-23, 7913 applications were sponsored, 2,921 sanctioned against a target of 2816 and 1937 grounded, the balance will be grounded by 31st March, 2023.
o   Under One District One Product (ODOP) from each product is identified and steps to get Branding, Marketing etc. are being taken up.
o   Under YSR Navodayam more than 1.08 Lakh accounts worth more than Rs 3,236 Cr. Were restructured.

Investments since 2019

For the period June 2019 to 31st January 2023, the investment inflow has been robust, with establishment of 111 Large Industries with an investment of Rs. 56,534.53 Crore and created employment to 73,286 persons with an average investment of Rs. 15,418 Crore per year
Further, 88 projects are under active implementation with total investment of Rs 2,35,125.60 Crore with a potential to create employment to 2,36,806 persons
In MSME sector 1,52,558 units are established with an investment of Rs. 19115.24 crore and created employment to 1363706 persons

Investments 2014-19

For the period June 2014 to May 2019, 215 Large Industries with an investment of Rs. 59,968.37 Crore and created employment to 1,48,482 persons with an average investment of Rs. 11,994 per year
In the MSME sector 1,08,311 units are established with an investment of Rs. 27,727.75 crore and created employment to 8,99,137 persons.