Factors Affecting Procurement of Finance from Short-term Sources by MSEs in Barak Valley,Assam

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) play an important role in the development of Indian economy. Finance is the lifeblood of MSEs. They get finance from both long-term sources and short-term sources. There are various factors affecting procurement of finance from long-term sources and short-term sources by the enterprises. The present study has assessed the relative importance of factors affecting procurement of finance from short-term sources by MSEs in the Barak Valley of Assam. The enterprises which are registered with District Industries and Commerce Centres of the three districts of the valley, namely Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi as on 31 March 2012 and which are still functioning have been studied. Sample size of the study is 246 of which 81.71 per cent are micro enterprises and 18.29 per cent are small enterprises. The study is based on primary data. The sampling technique of the study is ‘convenience sampling’. Arithmetic mean, rank and standard deviation have been used for data analysis. The hypotheses are tested with the help of the statistical technique ‘Mann–Whitney U test’.