Hon’ble Union Finance Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman interacted with the MSME entrepreneurs from the marble and granite industry at a function organized by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) at Sukher Industrial Area in Udaipur.
While interacting with the entrepreneurs, she reiterated the Government’s commitment to expanding the outreach of banking services for the benefit of MSMEs. She mentioned that in the recently announced Union Budget, there are a number of key recommendations for the MSME sector including the expansion of the branch network of SIDBI. As part of the budget announcements and to seek feedback from the field, the Finance Minister mentioned her intent to visit several MSME clusters with the illustrious land of Maharana Pratap, Udaipur being the first in the series.
Earlier during the day, the Finance Minister also visited the SIDBI branch office at Udaipur and held discussions with some of the existing customers of SIDBI on the various aspects of credit needs and delivery and handed over sanction letters to MSME units.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Jitan Ram Manjhi, Union Minister of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises mentioned that the Government was committed to bringing the benefits of its schemes to the last mile with a focus on micro enterprises. He highlighted the rapid progress made by the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises in the last few years and the substantial enhancement done in its corpus through budgetary allocation. He also mentioned that banks should more attention to supporting micro units and creating livelihood opportunities for the poor.
Shri M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Government of India mentioned that enhancing the lending to MSMEs is one of the key action points of his department and towards this end, the performance of banks is being closely monitored.
A MoU was also signed in the presence of the Hon'ble Finance Minister, between SIDBI and the Udaipur Marble Association which outlines a comprehensive plan to enhance the Association’s capabilities, including both hard and soft interventions. Additionally, SIDBI will facilitate marketing efforts for Association members through buyer-seller meetups to improve market access. During the Visit Honorable Finance Minister also visited the SIDBI branch at Udaipur and held discussions with some of the existing customers of SIDBI and obtained direct feedback. She along with MEME Minister also handed over sanction letters to some of the MSME borrowers of SIDBI. Shri Manoj Mittal, CMD, SIDBI while delivering the vote of thanks assured that SIDBI is committed to the promotion, development, and financing of MSMEs and would strive that the trust reposed by the Hon’ble Finance Minister and Hon’ble MSME Minister is fulfilled. He also mentioned SIDBI’s plans for the branch expansion of SIDBI as per the announcements made by the Hon’ble Finance Minister in the Union Budget.
