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SEPTEMBER - 2019
Project Tech-Saksham to enable Tech adoption among MSMEs
The Centre has launched a three-year project
in partnership with industry body CII to
enable technology adoption among MSMEs in
India, as it looks to create 5 crore jobs in five
years in the sector, increase its share to 50 per
cent of the GDP in five years etc.
Launched by the Hon'ble Union MSME
Minister, Sri Nitin Gadkari, the Project called
Tech-Saksham has on-boarded technology
giants including Dell, HP, Intel, Vodafone Idea,
WhatsApp and Yes Bank to help MSMEs
overcome challenges in adopting technology
including awareness and cost of technology
purchase or maintenance, resources and
manpower required to run the technologies,
return on investments, etc, the Ministry said in
a statement.
Tech-Saksham would focus on making
MSMEs competitive on a global scale, increase
their contribution to country exports and
leverage cost efficiencies.
Acknowledging the merits in the initiative, Sri
Srinivas Asranna, President, PIA, pointed out
that in the first phase, the project is targeted to
GST 2-0 will be More Simplified Tax System
Good news for all Members! The Finance
Ministry under the aegis of the GST Council is
is working to make GST filing simpler, as part
of the measures mooted to boost the economy.
The GST filings will soon have fewer Forms to
make the process much easier.
Presently, GST that was launched on July 1,
2017, has more than 10 different Forms for
filing the returns. This makes it an extremely
arduous process since separate Forms have to
be used depending on the type of taxpayer
(individual, non-resident, e-commerce firm
among others).
Each GST form is used for a different purpose.
Further, every form has to be filed within a
particular time period each month. Even for
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focus on MSMEs in sectors that are “labour-
intensive and have the propensity to respond
positively to tech-adoption, and will spark a
larger discussion in other MSME clusters,”
quoting an official release of the Ministry. In
this context, he said PIA will take up with
appropriate authorities a proposal to launch
the first phase in Peenya Industrial Area and
surrounding industrial estates, since they
fulfil all the stated requirements.
“At the launch of the project, it was mentioned
that the aim is to impact around 10,000
MSMEs and to achieve this workshops will be
held in industrial clusters. In that case, there
can be no better place for the project to take off
than from Peenya Industrial Area, among
others in the country,” he said.
The project called Tech-Saksham would
focus on making MSMEs competitive on a
global scale, increase their contribution to
country exports, and leverage cost
efficiencies.
The Tech Saksham platform would help
MSMEs overcome challenges through
multiple policy recommendations, knowledge
sessions, mentoring initiatives, etc.
Additionally, a technology portal will be
launched that will have e-learning modules,
and use of cutting edge technology to help
reach out to around 5 lakh MSMEs across
India.
normal taxpayers, there are multiple such
forms that currently make the process
cumbersome.
Simplifying the GST form and filing process
will definitely be a big boon for the small
entrepreneur, said Sri Srinivas Asranna,
President, PIA, as in most of the cases the
small entrepreneur in Peenya is compelled to
take care of everything in his industrial unit,
as his primary motive is to cut down costs
because he can ill-afford them. The complexity
of GST filing forces such small units to hire or
use the services of an auditor and also spend
more of their precious time which affects their
productivity, he said, and in this light,
welcomed the simplification of GST filing.