Minister for Industries and Commerce Mekapati Goutham Reddy said the guidelines for disbursing a financial assistance of ₹905 crore to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) had been drawn up and that the Discoms were instructed to waive fixed electricity charges for three months.
Applications were being received for the incentive package that was announced two weeks ago, he stated.
Addressing media persons after holding a review meeting on MSMEs at the Secretariat on Thursday, Mr. Goutham Reddy said there were about 97,000 MSMEs in the State and clarity was awaited on the financial assistance announced by the Central government to the industrial sector.
The extent to which the Central package would be beneficial to industries in the State was to be seen, he said, while committing on behalf of the State government that is required to bail out the MSMEs which bore the brunt of the lockdown.
Safety audit
Referring to the incident at the LG Polymers factory in Visakhapatnam, the Minister said a South Korean team had arrived and it would study the situation over a two-week period.
Notices were served to 86 hazardous industries across the State seeking information on their compliance with safety protocols and they were ordered to resume operations post lockdown only after doing a safety audit.
