New Delhi: As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present the Union Budget 2022 on February 1, MFIs and fintech sector emphasises on a strong need to simplify and standardize financing for MSMEs, and give impetus to consumption led growth of the economy.
Sadaf Sayeed, CEO – Muthoot Microfin said, “The economy has been on a rapid recovery path post the second wave of pandemic, corporate earnings for Q3 have been good so far for the industry. Similar trend can be seen in govt revenue, both direct and indirect tax collections have been higher than even pre pandemic levels. This trend will allow room for FM to take bold steps in direction of reviving private Investment and giving impetus to consumption led growth of the economy. Agri sector has once again recorded a very good growth of 3.9%. FM may go for a second round of PM Samman Nidhi DBT to farmers and consider allocating more to MGNREGA scheme to further promote development and employment in rural areas. Improvement in cash flow in rural areas would benefit microfinance companies”.
Harshvardhan Lunia, CEO & Co-founder at Lendingkart believes that the he government should also push the collaborative approach decided by the Reserve Bank to incentivise banking sector to partner with fintech lenders on various risk-sharing co-lending models to extend capital support to MSMEs.
"Lending Fintechs (esp those operating in MSME segment) borrow at high rates which in turn results in high cost product for small businesses. If govt can provide some funding support to such digital lenders, it would help trickle down the benefit to small businesses," says Lunia.
Pallavi Shrivastava – Co-Founder & Director, Progcap said, "As a lookout to budget 2022 we expect a strong mandate towards the lending NBFC’s which are working towards empowering the under-served SMBs through financial and technology interventions."
Tarun Nazare, Co-founder and CEO, Neokred says - “We eagerly look forward to the Union Budget 2022. Holding strong expectations from private sector lending - banks and merchants working together to facilitate 100% loan coverage to farmers in helping them get fertilizers and seeds as per their crop grown on their land. We expect importance to be given to solar energy, creating Gigafactories PAN India which will decrease electricity cost by 70% in a year.”
Rajat Deshpande CEO and Co-founder of FinBox said, "The government has been a key driver of the fintech revolution that’s currently underway in India - from building a robust public digital infrastructure aided with Aadhar, UPI, account aggregation to initiatives like India Stack, eRUPI, payment banks and more. However, to sustain the momentum, the government and regulators must make room for sustainable business models by giving entities enough leeway to generate revenue streams."
"We hope the 2022 budget will be a boon to the fintech sector as the lending space continues to grow. For the same, I think that there should be changes in debt financing options to get access to financial institutions beyond banks," Akshay Mehrotra, Co-Founder and CEO of EarlySalary said.
MD & CEO, Shriram City Union Finance said, "We expect harmonization of regulations for NBFCs and Banks, specifically on tax and recovery measures. There is a need for an effective refinance mechanism (similar to NHB refinance) to ensure liquidity and easier access to finance."
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