Exclusion of Export Turnover from MSME Definition to be notified in 2-3 days, says Nitin Gadkari

Government will notify within 2- 3 days exclusion of export turnover for calculating the threshold for an MSME unit under the new definition, the MSME and Road Transport & Highway Minister Mr Nitin Gadkari said at an EEPC India Meeting.

Addressing senior members of the EEPC India, the apex body of the engineering exporters yesterday, Mr Gadkari said the government had announced that export turnover would not be taken into account for calculating the turnover limit in the new definition of MSME, but the gazette notification did not mention this exclusion.

''The operational notification regarding exclusion of export turnover for calculating turnover limit is under legal vetting, and will be issued within two to three days'', the minister said, addressing the EEPC India members via video conference.

Mr Gadkari responded to different issues of engineering exporters, flagged by the EEPC India Chairman Mr Ravi Sehgal and senior most Former Chairman Mr G D Shah and other senior functionaries. The issues raised before the minister included the rising cost of diesel, which would have a cascading impact on the cost of freight and overall competitiveness of the exporters.

Senior EEPC India members also sought Mr Gadkari's intervention in ensuring that the banks extend working capital loans to the MSMEs without getting into lengthy and cumbersome scrutiny.

Mr Gadkari exhorted the engineering exporters to set up logistics parks along the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway being developed by the National Highway Authority of India. He said the NHAI has decided to develop industrial clusters alongside the expressway.

Mr Gadkari also impressed upon the exporters to shift to waterways for cheaper mode of transporting cargo to the ports. He emphasised that the trucks should also shift to new fuels like LNG and CNG.