TG govt sets aside Rs. 4k-cr for MSMEs

Hyderabad: The Government of Telangana has plans to spend Rs 4,000 crore over the next five years towards various initiatives to develop Micro Small, Medium and Enterprises, said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, while unveiling the "Telangana MSME Policy 2024" on Wednesday.

According to the new policy, to accelerate the growth of MSMEs, the state government has identified six trust areas for improvement – improving availability, accessibility and affordability of land, facilitating access to finance, ensuring easy access to raw materials, improving flexibility in labour markets, encouraging adoption of technology and enhancing access to markets.

The policy said the government is aiming to see that over 25,000 new MSMEs are established in the state in the next five years. The policy facilitates SHGs (self-help groups) to transition to MSMEs by providing end-to-end support structures besides strengthening the state as a leading exporter in the country with an emphasis on import substitution.

The Telangana government is drafting a procurement policy with preferential procurement from MSMEs, particularly from SC/ST and women owned enterprises, the policy said.

The department of industries and commerce will, within three months of notification of the procurement policy, create a mechanism to monitor the implementation of the preferential procurement scheme, it further said. To promote the adoption of green technologies, the government will provide incentives like an additional 15 per cent floor area if the MSME has a solar photovoltaic plant installed or a solid waste management plant for treatment of total generated waste or if the building has 3 to 5-star rating on green building for integrated habitat assessment.

The policy also said of the five MSME parks to be constructed between ORR (Outer Ring Road) and RRR (Regional Ring Road), at least one will have dedicated support to facilitate MSME to acquire ZED (Zero Defect Zero Effect) bronze certification.

The government aims to increase e-commerce penetration in MSMEs by encouraging the participation of sellers on the open network of digital commerce (ONDC) portal and government e-marketplace portal.

The government will conduct awareness workshops for entrepreneurs in collaboration with industry associations and the Government of India to educate small sellers and businesses about ONDC, it further said.