Minister of MSME and Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari announced revised guidelines for MSMEs with the inclusion of Retail and Wholesale trades as MSMEs. With this announcement, the retail and wholesale traders will now also get the benefit of priority sector lending under RBI guidelines.
He also said that earlier both the retail and wholesale trade sector was left out of the ambit of MSMEs. But now the revised guidelines will benefit around 2.5 crore retail and wholesale traders, and will also allow them to register on the Udyam portal.
Commenting on the development, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said, with this decision, traders will be able to avail requisite finances from banks and financial institutions under priority sector lending.
The traders can now avail the benefits of several other government schemes for MSMEs, he also added in his statement.
The move has an immediate impact on smaller retailers & wholesalers with businesses up to Rs 250 crore of turnovers in availing immediate-term finance as part of various schemes announced under Atmanirbhar Bharat.
The new guidelines received a warm welcome from the retail and trade associations stating that this will enable a large number of traders to get access to the crucial capital that has been impacted greatly due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
All the measures that were announced for the MSME sector in the past year will now also apply to the retail and wholesale traders as well. This landmark decision by the central government will have a structural impact on the sector and will provide better funding options for businesses that want to get structured.
