MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said the government is engaging with global e-commerce giant Amazon to increase the export of goods made by the industry to Rs 5 lakh crores in two years.

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“Ten days back I had a video conference with Amazon, and their export from Indian MSME is Rs 60,000 crores. I requested them to make it Rs 5 lakh crores within 2 years,” the minister said while addressing the SBI-FICCI AtmaNirbhar MSME Conclave this afternoon.

“Our first priority is getting investments in the MSME sector,” Nitin Gadkari said, adding that the various schemes announced under government’s Atama Nirbhar Bharat package have brought a lot of relief for the industry already.

“Almost Rs 1.20 lakh crores disbursement has taken place under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) so far,” he said.

Uday Shankar, Senior Vice President of FICCI and Asia Pacific President of The Walt Disney Company, raised an issue about co-operative banks not being allowed to participate under the Rs 3 lakh crore MSME credit guarantee scheme. Shankar said a lot of MSMEs raise funds from co-operative banks who are not listed as lenders under the scheme. To this, the MSME Minister said co-operative banks were not included as lender institutions under ECLGS due to dual regulation and supervision issues, but the Finance Ministry was already in the process of collecting data from them to consider their inclusion.

Speaking about the issue of delayed payments to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) industry, Gadkari said the government has now given orders to all public undertakings to ensure they clear such dues within 45 days' time.

“MSME sector has received its due share in the government’s Rs 20 lakh crore Atma Nirbhar Bharat package,” noted Rajnish Kumar, Chairman of State Bank of India, adding that the bank has been at the forefront of lending to MSMEs. “The old way of lending is undergoing a big change,” Kumar said, noting that banks are using digital technology in a big way to lend now. The SBI Chairman said that the bank has placed officers in charge of specific geographies across its 90 zones in the country to specifically focus on this sector.

State Bank of India is the largest lender under the government’s ECLGS and has sanctioned over Rs 21,000 crores of loans under the scheme so far. Rajnish Kumar added that SBI has had a history of lending to small businesses that have now become large corporations and would continue to support MSMEs.S