Kathmandu, July 1 : The Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises- Nepal (FSME-Nepal) has urged the government to float loans up to Rs 10 million to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis.
In a meeting in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (June 30), Federation’s senior vice-president Umesh Prasad Singh, said, “We request the government to come up with the provision of providing loans up to Rs 10 million in the monetary policy of the upcoming fiscal.”
According to him, it shall also provide 50 per cent subsidy or not exceeding Rs 500,000 in the cost price of the tools and equipment that are used by the enterprises that are based on local raw materials such as Allo, Babiyo, , Lokta and Sisnu and Banana. “Such measure will help revitalise the ailing SMEs in a way that could create job opportunities in the country. ”
Furthermore, the Federation has demanded cent per cent custom duty exemption on the equipment to set up industries employing innovative technologies for and by the youths returning home from foreign countries. Utilization of the skills and capital of the youths returning from foreign employment has been underscored.
There are a total of 470,681 SMEs registered in Nepal from 1990 to last fiscal year, among them 352,427 were in operation, according to the Department of Industry. These enterprises have Rs 50 billion of investment in total and employs 2.8 million people.
