Jaitley launches online finance facilitation for MSMEs

New Delhi, Aug 11 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Thursday launched an online finance facilitation portal for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to facilitate ease of doing business.

“The government is committed to ease of doing business. All financial support will be provided to MSMEs to improve their competency in various fields,” Jaitley said at the 14th meeting of the national board of MSME.

The online finance facilitation centre will allow the MSMEs to apply for loans from the various banks on the NSIC (National Small Industries Corporation) portal.

NSIC has signed MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with 33 banks, 14 of whom have agreed to associate with the online finance facilitation portal, a statement from the MSME ministry said.

Jaitley also launched a MSME datbabank portal that will provide real time information on various types of the registered MSMEs.

The databank will eventually will be used for public procurement purposes and the PSUs (public sector undertakings) may make use of the data for procurement purposes from MSMEs.

The Finance Minister said that GST (goods and services tax) will also be a step towards this (ease of doing business) direction.