CONGRESS is being asked to fast-track passage of a bill providing for a minimum P10,000 outright grant to start-up eligible MSMEs, or micro, small and medium-scale enterprises producing locally made goods all over the country.
Once passed into law, Senate Bill 2049, filed by Sen. Grace Poe, mandates the government to put up a trust fund with a P50-million seed capital, the disbursement of which will be administered by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Poe’s proposed law seeks to institutionalize the state-run stimulus program for MSMEs tapping “all cities and municipalities to promote a particular product or finished good within their jurisdiction.”
The senator adds that each city and municipality shall be made to identify one finished good that is not only well-known but also “an established product” in their locality.
According to Poe, the bill aims “to breathe life into the Constitutional provisions” by establishing a “Suporta para sa Produktong Pilipino Program,” referring to the declared policy of the government to establish programs that will provide financial incentives for local enterprises in the country.
Poe points out that “the concept of social justice is imbued throughout the 1987 Constitution,” adding that, “in fact, an entire article is dedicated to the elaboration of this concept.”
She explains that eligible MSMEs, which primarily operate within the city or municipality concerned and which produce the identified finished goods, shall be eligible to avail themselves of the said fund grant.
Poe’s bill provides that, in order to be eligible for the said program, businesses and enterprises must first provide documentary evidence attesting they have been operating within the concerned city or municipality for at least three years and have been producing the identified finished good for the same period.
The bill further provides that no business or enterprise shall avail themselves of such benefit more than once a year.
Moreover, it mandates the DTI to also put up regular trade fairs and bazaars where the eligible businesses and enterprises covered by the proposed law can promote their finished goods to potential investors, as well as consumers.