Bit by bit, Arun Jaitley’s 2018 budget has increased allocations for most MSME

To address the problem of slow economic growth, Union budget 2018 has sought to resolve some long-standing concerns of the MSME sector. MSMEs are the most dynamic and buoyant sector of the economy. Addressing issues such as credit availability and grants for certain sectors can help it contribute in a major way to the national GDP. While referring to increased allocations for sectors including healthcare, agriculture and MSMEs, Union minister for MSMEs Giriraj Singh hailed the budget and said it is a budget for the masses. In a series of tweets, Singh claimed that allocation for individual MSME schemes increased by 59 per cent, from ₹3,680 crore in 2017-18 to ₹5,852 crore in 2018-19, while adding that this will boost employment and economic growth. The minister further claimed that government is working for generating self-employment opportunities through establishment of about 88,000 micro enterprises in the non-farm sector. For this, the funding of Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme has gone up from ₹1,024 crore in 2017-18 to ₹1,800 crore in 2018-19.