The government has undertaken many effective steps to strengthen the MSME sector, which provides employment to crores of people, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

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Presenting the Budget 2019-20, Goyal referred to some announcements made earlier for the benefit of the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector.

"Recently, a scheme of sanctioning loans up to Rs 1 crore in 59 minutes has been launched. GST-registered SME units will get 2 percent interest rebate on incremental loan of Rs 1 crore," Goyal said.

He further said that soon, businesses with less than Rs 5 crore annual turnover comprising over 90 percent of GST payers will be allowed to file quarterly return.

"Those having turnover less than Rs 5 crore will have to file return only once in three months," Goyal said.

Goyal said 25 percent sourcing by all the government undertakings will now have to be from SMEs. Of this, the material to the extent of at least 3 percent will be sourced from women-owned SMEs, he added.