Member of Parliament requests Lt. Governor to sanction pending subsidy cases under MSME capital subsidy scheme

Port Blair, Jan 31: The Member of Parliament of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Shri. Kuldeep Rai Sharma has requested the Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to consider grant of subsidy to pending cases of MSME capital subsidy scheme on priority and the entitled subsidy as per rules may be granted to them at the earliest possible so that the loan taken by the applicants can be refunded to the maximum extent.

In a letter addressed to the Lt. Governor, the Member of Parliament mentioned that the subsidy under Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) capital subsidy scheme was promulgated by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration on 25th October 2017 vide Gazette notification No. 263 to support the unemployed youth and other jobless youngsters to establish their own business.
 
He pointed out that for availing benefits under the MSME scheme, many unemployed youths of these Islands had taken loans from various banks of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and started their own enterprises. Most of them are invested in the tourism industry.

He mentioned that in the year 2020, unfortunately, the COVID -19 Pandemic hit the entire nation including Andaman & Nicobar Islands which lasted for nearly two years and the running business of all these unemployed youth were shut down for most of these two years.

The Member of Parliament added that apart from the above, from March 2022 the maintenance of the airfield of Port Blair airport was started which lasted for 3 months. As a result of this, the tourism industry and the youths associated in these fields, have been under severe financial distress due to dent in business and those unemployed youths who have taken loans are unable to even pay their EMIs. Consequently, the interest of such loans has increased manifold, which has now become a severe financial burden on their shoulders.

He mentioned that the subsidy applied under the MSME scheme by the business youngsters has been lying pending in the Directorate of Industries for over 2 years and are under examination.

He added that the last subsidy was sanctioned several years ago and thereafter no subsidy has been granted to eligible firms.

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