Anantapur: MSMEs hit by fund crunch, workers shortage problems

Anantapur: The Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector in the district which has been providing employment to about 2 lakh people mostly in rural areas is in deep crisis due to nationwide lockdown to curb Covid-19.

The closure of small and medium and micro-enterprises has adversely affected the economies of the rural and sub-urban population.

Though the government gave clearance to the reopening of the industrial units, only 250 units have reopened with minimum staff out of the 8,000 odd units.

The managers of several units could not reopen as workers are not willing to work in red zones. Non-availability of raw material for their products is another reason for not reopening the units.

The managers of the units do not have investment to revive their collapsed units and are looking for some better stimulus package from the Union government.

District Industries Centre General Manager Sudershan Babu stated Rs.85 crores will be released for the industries in the district as incentives. This will help the industrial units to revive themselves to some extent.

He said to The Hans India that there is no direct benefit to the MSMEs by the so called stimulus package of the union government.

The Centre announced a stimulus package of 3 lakh crore to the MSME sector. But the managements say it is only an additional amount of loan, which would be an additional burden on them.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry president P Seshanjaneyulu said that the industry needs incentives and not loans.

Another factor which affects the sector is the mass exodus of migrant labourers to their states. The migrant labourers are unlikely to comeback for another 3 months.

Unless the migrant labourers return, the MSME sector will be in doldrums The MSME units also urge the Centre to give Rs.10,000 financial assistance for 2-3 months from the NREGS budget.