Telangana’s Industry and Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao has urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to support the MSME sector in the state, reeling under the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
“While the incidence of Covid is declining sharply in the country and the chances of a modest economic recovery may be possible towards Q4 of the year, the MSME sector still requires support.<\/p>\n
“Looking at the seriousness of loss of business and declining revenues of the MSMEs, it will be justified if the loans availed by the MSMEs are given a moratorium till March 31st, 2022 without any accrual of interest during the moratorium period,” wrote KTR, as the minister is popularly known, in a letter to Sitharaman.<\/p>\n
He stated that this support will provide a big relief to the MSMEs and can help them get back to normalcy.<\/p>\n
KTR highlighted that Hyderabad and surrounding districts are major hubs for manufacturing for the past five decades with a predominance of MSME industries. But due to pandemic-induced restrictions and disruptions since last year, the MSMEs have been badly affected, he said.<\/p>\n
“Though the Government of Telangana did not put any restrictions on industrial activities during the recent second wave of the pandemic, the restrictions in surrounding states had a major impact on the functioning of the industries in Telangana,” he said.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that many of them faced challenges in procurement of raw materials and sending out finished products to their customers.<\/p>\n
He said another reason for the slowdown of industrial activities was the shortage of labour that typically comes to Telangana from other states.<\/p>\n