Minister of MSME and Road Transport and Highways Mr Nitin Gadkari announced on 2 July 2021 revised guidelines for MSMEs, with inclusion of Retail and Wholesale traders as MSMEs. In a Tweet he said under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi Ji, we are committed to strengthening of MSME and make them engines for economic growth.

Mr Gadkari said the revised guidelines will benefit 2.5 crore Retail and Wholesale Traders. He said Retail and wholesale trade were left out of the ambit of MSME, now under the revised guidelines, retail and wholesale trade will also get benefit of priority sector lending under RBI guidelines.

With the revised guidelines the Retail and wholesale trades will be now be allowed to register on Udyam Registration Portal.

Wholesale and retail trading activities were earlier classified as MSMEs but a gazette notification dated June 2017 ousted them from the Micro and Small enterprises sector. Its rationale was that retailers and wholesale traders are neither manufacturing units nor service units and hence, cannot obtain the Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (which is called MSME registration). Loans given to the MSME sector come under priority sector lending. The non-inclusion of retail and wholesale traders as MSMEs had denied them of this benefit.

The announcement of the revised guidelines for MSMEs has seen a positive response from the trade associations. Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI), said that this is a landmark decision that will give retail MSMEs the support they need to survive, revive and thrive.

MSMEs, which self-certify their existence by registering on the government portal, are eligible for a wide variety of benefits ranging from interest rate subsidy on bank loans, to exemption under direct tax laws and concession in electricity bills, among others. Now under the revised guidelines, retail and wholesale trade will also get benefit of priority sector lending under the Reserve Bank of India guidelines.

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