MSME Financing Market in India 2023

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) play a pivotal role in the Indian economy. The small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises are mainly concentrated in the rural regions of the country, whereas the trading and other operational enterprises are mainly based in the urban areas. The government has introduced several policies which extend loan facilities to MSMEs to address the problem of unavailability of enough credit.

Market Insights:

As of FY 2022, the MSME industry offered employment to more than 111 million people and is the second-largest employment-generating sector in India (agriculture is the largest). In India, around 33 million MSMEs are in rural regions and 31 million are in urban areas. The sector contributes ~29% to the country's GDP, which is expected to reach 50% by 2025.

Credit Supply to the MSME Sector in India:

Traditionally, public sector banks led credit disbursement to MSMEs, with a 50% share before 2019. However, since then, they have ceded shares to private banks. As of August 2022, the MSME sector faced a credit gap of INR 20-25 Tn against an outstanding amount of INR 22.3 Tn.

Impact of COVID-19:

Small businesses are the most vulnerable to unexpected crises like COVID-19 because of their size, scale of business operations, and limited financial management resources. However, the government has announced several policy measures to minimize losses. The announcement of a targeted long-term repo operation (TLTRO) of INR 500 Bn, a grant of INR 3 Tn collateral-free automatic loans, INR 200 Bn subordinated debt to stressed MSMEs, and a complete ban on global tenders for procurement of goods and services for up to INR 2 Bn are a few of the crucial policy mandates.