Industry body seeks revival of credit linked subsidy scheme for micro and small units

Industry body PHDCCI has approached the government seeking reintroduction of the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme to facilitate technology upgradation of micro and small enterprises.

The scheme provided an upfront capital subsidy of 15 per cent subject to a maximum amount of Rs 15 lakh on institutional finance availed by the enterprises for induction of well-established and improved technology in the specified 51 sub-sectors/products. It was valid till 2019-20 and was discontinued thereafter.

President of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) Saket Dalmia took up the issue in a letter to Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Narayan Rane last week.

"We have been receiving feedback from our MSME members requesting us to take up the issue with the government for revival and reintroduction of the scheme as MSMEs still need this kind of financial support. We, therefore, earnestly request your good self to kindly look into this matter and initiate necessary measures for reintroduction of Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) for technology upgradation in MSMEs," Dalmia said.

He argued that technology upgradation in MSMEs is highly desirable to improve efficiency and scale up their production capacities to achieve only global competitiveness but also for import substitution particularly in sectors like defence, railways, electronics and communications, pharmaceuticals, among others.

"In this regard, the previous CLCSS scheme was proving to be very helpful for growth of MSMEs," the chamber's president said in the letter to the minister.

Major objective of CLCSS was to upgrade plant and machinery with state-of-the-art technology, with or without expansion and also for new MSEs which were setting up their facilities with appropriate and proven technology duly approved under the scheme guidelines.