: In a bid to facilitate financial assistance to micro, small and medium enterprises, the MSME ministry will ask all the major banks, including SBI, to appoint a senior official to coordinate with them for the purpose.
"We are going to write letters to CMDs of 23 banks, to appoint a director-level officer, who can coordinate with Development Commissioner MSME office and drill down the details of those bank branches, where units are facing problem in getting finances," an official said.
The sector face credit crunch as they fail to fulfil collateral requirements and have limited access to equity capital.
Last week, the Task Force on MSME under the Prime Minister's Office had decided to put pressure on banks to fulfil their credit disbursement targets.
As per the targets, banks have to achieve 20 per cent growth in credit disbursement to MSMEs, of which half must go to the micro units.
State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, IDBI Bank, Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank,Union Bank of India are among those 23 banks, who fell short of their targets, the official said.
The task force, under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary to Prime Minister T K A Nair, was appointed during the 2009 global financial crisis, had given several recommendations for ensuring credit availability to this vital sector.
The MSME sector provides employment to 60 million people through 26 million enterprises. It contributes 40 per cent to India's exports and 45 per cent to total manufacturing output.
