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Industry bodies representing micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have urged the government to exempt MSMEs with turnovers below Rs 5 crore from unnecessary audits and inspections unless major discrepancies are detected.
“Additionally, the budget should include guidelines and funding to train compliance officials to handle honest errors by MSMEs with leniency, promoting a supportive regulatory environment.
A comprehensive error-forgiveness program should be established, waiving penalties for minor GST filing mistakes or delays, and providing simplified reinstatement processes for canceled GST registrations with minimal fines,” stated the India SME Forum, which represents over 98,200 MSMEs as direct paid members.
To improve the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platform and ensure timely payments to MSMEs, the India SME Forum recommended integrating TReDS with the GST system and the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal, as advised by the Standing Committee on Finance chaired by Jayant Sinha.
“An interlinked GST-TReDS-GeM platform could automatically forward unpaid invoices to the buyer's GST portal after the stipulated payment due date—15 days or 45 days in the case of a written agreement,” the recommendation noted.
The Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), a leading MSME representative body, called on the government to develop a comprehensive policy to address flaws in the current Special Mention Account (SMA) framework aimed at supporting MSMEs showing early signs of financial stress.
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