Nirmala Sitharaman, India, the Finance Minister has reviewed the situations about the outstanding payments to the micro, small and medium enterprises or MSMEs, especially by the CPSEs and the central government agencies on Thursday. Top officials, including the Secretary, the Department of Financial Services Debasish Panda, MSME Secretary named AK Sharma were also present in the mentioned meeting.

The Aatmanirbhar Bharat package which was announced in the month May this year, The MSME dues from the central government agencies and the Central Public Sector Enterprises commonly known as CPSEs should have been paid within 45 days as a part of this. "Since the month of May 2020, regular follow-up and concerted efforts have been decided by the Government of India, particularly by the Ministry of MSME, for the payment of these due amounts. Main focus was placed on the CPSEs and the central government agencies for the payment of due amount to the MSMEs," said in an official statement resulting in over the amount of Rs 21,000 crore rupees of the MSME due amounts have been paid in the past seven months by the central government agencies and the CPSEs. The statement by the MSME ministry informed that the highest level of procurement was achieved in the month October of over Rs 5,100 crore and the payment of over Rs 4,100 crore. Going by the reports received in the first 10 days of the month November, this level of performance is usually expected to be surpassed as the procurement of about Rs 4,700 crore and the payment of about Rs 4,000 crore have already been reported.

The statement revealed that the efforts made to clear the MSME dues include several rounds of letters written to the Ministries and CPSEs by the Secretary of MSME that is followed by personal talks and the persuasions.The efforts and strong support from the PMO and Cabinet Secretary, wrote the mentioned letters to the CPSEs and the governmental agencies.

The MSME ministry for the CPSEs and the central government ministries an online reporting system was designed for the purpose to report details of the total transactions and total payments as well as the pending dues at the end period of every month. The report of the seven months i.e. May to November indicates that the procurement by the central government agencies and CPSEs from Micro Small Medium Enterprises is on the rise and has gone up by almost of 2.5 times since the time May 2020. The payments to the MSMEs have also gone up proportionately. The pendency of payment has gone down in terms of the percentage against the procurement value. However, the reports given in the month of December shows a better trend than in the November as per just 10 days of reporting as per the statement.