Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the PM Gati Shakti – the national master plan for infrastructure development – will also benefit exports and enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to become globally competitive. In order to reduce logistics costs for businesses, PM Modi said a national single window logistics portal will be created with the integration of 24 digital systems of six ministries through Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), proposed in the budget 2022-23.

The digital platform PM Gati Shakti was launched in October last year to bring 16 ministries including Railways and Roadways together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects. The plan would incorporate different ministries and state governments schemes such as Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc., and would also cover economic zones to make Indian businesses more competitive, the ministry of ports had said during its launch.

“In the year 2013-14, the direct capital expenditure of the Government of India was about Rs 2.5 lakh crore, which has increased to Rs 7.5 lakh crore in the year 2022-23”, the Prime Minister said. “Infrastructure Planning, Implementation and Monitoring will get a new direction from PM Gati-Shakti. This will also bring down the time and cost overrun of the projects”, he added. 

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Important, to establish a globally competitive business environment, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech had announced the extension of the concessional corporate tax rate of 15 per cent by one more year — till March 2024 for newly incorporated manufacturing companies. The move was intended to attract more investments and support Make in India with schemes such as production-linked incentives. The minister had also announced replacing The Special Economic Zones Act with new legislation to allow states to become partners in the development of enterprise and service hubs.

“This will cover all large existing and new industrial enclaves to optimally utilise the available infrastructure and enhance the competitiveness of exports,” Sitharaman had said. Currently, MSMEs have a share of around 48 per cent in India’s total exports. The government has aimed at increasing it to 60 per cent by FY25.