Grievance cell to redress MSME issues

Bhubaneswar: With an aim to resolve various issues plaguing entrepreneurs, chief secretary Gopal Chandra Pati today had an open discussion with entrepreneurs of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and asked the director of Industries to hold grievance redressing camps for the MSMEs every month.

The MSME sector in Odisha is performing at par with national level and they have been instrumental in enhancing the export growth by 80% in non-mineral sector.

During the discussion, a host of issues relating to revival of sick units, procurement by PSUs and large scale industries operating in Odisha from Odisha-based MSMEs, extension of credit guarantee facility to the MSMEs running in rented premises, revival of OSFC, purchase from local EPM rate contract holders by turnkey contract awardees and settlement of pending credit cases as per OTS policy were taken up.

Also, skill development activities in various MSME clusters, availability of degraded forest for compensatory afforestation, various statutory clearances, establishment of entrepreneur development centres, establishment of incubation centres and common facility centres, raw material entry tax for MSMEs, establishment of textile park, separate power tariff for MSMEs, etc were discussed in the open house.

The chief secretary has also advised MSME secretary Panchanana Das to look into the specific individual grievances raised by some entrepreneurs in the open house. Pati also asked Das to put in place one OSIC-led marketing consortium for providing common brand and marketing support to Odisha-based MSMEs. He also advised to develop MSME clusters as growth centres.

IDCO CMD Vishal Dev, secretaries and senior officers from concerned departments, representatives of various MSME associations along with many young entrepreneurs participated in the discussions.