Budget 2020: No more auditing of MSMEs if revenue is below this; loan restructuring may extend by 1 year – The Financial Express

Union Budget 2020 India: Credit and Finance for MSMEs: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her second budget speech on Saturday said the government has asked the Reserve Bank of India to extend the debt restructuring window for MSMEs by one more year to March 2021. “MSME recast window was to end in March 2020; the government has asked RBI to extend the window by one year to March 2021.” the minister said adding that more than 5 lakh MSMEs benefited from the RBI’s restructuring of loans. The minister said a scheme for giving subordinate debt for MSMEs will be launched, says FM.

The RBI had recently allowed a one-time restructuring of existing debt up to Rs 25 crore for the defaulting companies even as their loans are being classified as standard assets, PTI had reported. This would help MSMEs tide over problems of lack of working capital following the demonetisation and GST implementation. Further, Nirmala Sitharaman giving respite to MSMEs from the need to get their accounts audited announced that MSMEs having turnover up to Rs 5 crore will not require auditing of their accounts. This limit has been increased from the current Rs 1 crore limit. “To reduce their compliance, I propose to raise (the limit) by five times the turnover threshold for audit from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore,” the minister said.

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The minister, in her speech, also announced that an app-based invoice financing loans product will be launched to obviate the problem of delayed payments and cash flow mismatches for MSMEs. The minister said a new logistics policy will also be unveiled soon that would make MSMEs more competitive. “National Logistics Policy will be revealed soon, creating a single-window e-logistics market. It will focus on making MSMEs more competitive,” Sitharaman said. The minister also said that a new scheme will be launched to achieve higher export credit. The scheme will offer higher insurance cover, reduced premium for small exporters and simplified procedure for claim settlements.