CGSSD Scheme: New lease of life for stressed MSMEs in India

The new scheme is a well-conceived framework to enable stressed potentially viable MSMEs to secure a new lease of life and a much needed bridge to facilitate constructive engagement with the bank.

Recently an entrepreneur sought our assistance to revive his business units, one in South and the other one in North. Both are in the same activity and are incorporated in the year 2016. Both together consumed the investment in excess of Rs 30 crores with little than 50% of the bank loan. The business was new to the family although they are in the higher reach of the value chain of the industry for more than four decades.

Both businesses faced quite the same problem.  They failed to gather a robust team. The capacity utilisation was lower than the minimum viable level. . The key risks were not in control. Since the family members were at the helm of affairs, there was lax internal control and governance. No one took the burden of running the business professionally. 

Despite the most modern production facility and promoted by the family of successful entrepreneurs, the business failed to reach the expected revenue targets and started incurring huge losses resulting in the account becoming NPA in the books of the bank. Having no option left with, Banks in both the places  initiated recovery action under SARFAESI Act.

The family repeatedly sought assistance from the banks to restructure the loan and revive the business by infusing additional capital. However, banks were very adamant insisting for the recovery of the loan.

Latest Development: Revival is underway

Thanks to the Govt’s initiative of helping the stressed MSMEs through a new scheme “Credit Guarantee for subordinated Debt (CGSSD)”, the businesses of both these units are seeing a revival.

Under the new scheme, the loan restructuring is underway at the individual bank level.  A new business strategy is put in place.  The operation is restarted in both the units. The capacity utilisation is steadily rising.

The new guidelines from the Govt of India made the difference:

Recently Govt brought out a new scheme to facilitate the revival of stressed but potential MSMEs.  The purpose is to provide guarantee coverage for the CGSSD and provide Sub-ordinated Debt support in respect of the restructuring of MSMEs. 90% guarantee coverage would come from scheme/ Trust and the remaining 10% from the concerned promoter(s). The objective of the scheme is to provide personal loan through banks to the promoters of stressed MSMEs for infusion as equity / quasi-equity in the business eligible for restructuring.

The salient features are:

• The borrower should be the promoter of MSME unit
• The Account should be SMA 2 or NPA as on  30.4.2020
• The accounts classified as NPA after 1.4.2018 are eligible
• The loan amount will be 15% of Promoters stake in the business to the maximum of Rs 75 lakhs
• The loan will be extended to promoters.
• The loan will have guarantee cover from CGTMSE

The scheme is a game-changer:

The scheme is a source of great relief in the above instance. The promoters were sincerely looking for a way out from the messy banking relationship to revive the business.  The scheme extended a framework to work with the bank and find a viable path to return to profit. Today the units are in a position to extend jobs to many unskilled and semi-skilled employees in the region. Precious public money will come back to the bank in a phased manner without going through stressful, expensive and value destructive recovery actions.

A mechanism for handholding during the stressful scenario is needed for MSMEs.

Entrepreneurship requires to be encouraged for India to become a global powerhouse and assisting entrepreneurs in the stressed scenario should be part of the policy support they need. We explain  here below some of the reasons:

• Dealing with an uncertain environment is endemic  to entrepreneurship: Despite the best planning, many firms may challenge to survival due to factors not in their control. Many time changes in the policy or local regulation do impact the business of the small businesses very badly. 
• Internal factors and learning curve: There are chances that many a time entrepreneurs fail to get the grip on certain vital functions that may be the key success factor for the business. Every venture has its own learning curve and they need to be supported if there is any delayed onset of the business for want of understanding if its nitty-gritty.
• Bad financial planning: Many a time the decision to launch new busies is more an emotional decision than followed up with a clear financial strategy. We have seen many entities struggling to put the financial maths in place despite the best of technology, manpower, and having huge opportunities to become successful.
• Absence of professional advisors and mentors: Many first-generation entrepreneurs go through a long-struggling learning curve in the absence of access to independent and credible advisors and mentors. As a result, the process of finding the right formula for success gets longer.

Entrepreneurs do make mistakes especially in the early stage of new business.  There should be an avenue for course correction. Such businesses deserve a chance to correct the course and redraw their path to success.

In the above cases the CGSSD scheme played a major role to bring in difference. In the similar instances elsewhere entrepreneurs need to be given chance for course correction.  An opportunity to review and strategize their business will be of great to protect the value of enterprise they have passionately built.

Also the CGSSD scheme can create a good platform to  make the engagement between the bank and entrepreneurs more constructive even when there is distress and facilitate them to find a viable path jointly to turn around the stressed business.  In any case It will not take away the discretion of the bank to enforce the recovery if the attempt does not help to revive. 

Further improvement required:

CGSSD scheme is a welcome step to help the stressed MSMEs.  The support mechanism for stressed MSMEs may be further improved to broaden its horizon. Some of them are:

a)      Make it available all across the banks and NBFCs: The borrowing of any MSME is wider than one source. This should be mandatory of all of them join in the process. Unfortunately, lenders other than Govt owned banks are not supporting the MSMEs in this regard.  It should be available on a non-discriminatory basis. Govt may bring in required legal and/or regulatory actions in this regard.

b)      Remove the age of NPA clause: As per the norms of the guidelines, accounts classified as NPA from April 1, 2018, onwards are eligible. This may be relaxed to cover any potentially viable unit irrespective of the date of becoming  NPA.

Conclusion:

CGSSD scheme is a welcome step to help the stressed MSMEs to find new lease of life. Also, it is a much better option for the banks instead of seeking recovery action immediately after becoming NPA.