New Delhi, July 23 (IANS): As many as 516,619 micro small and medium entreprise (MSME) units have been reported sick by commercial banks who are owed as much as Rs.33,378.17 crore by them as on March 2015, parliament was informed on Thursday.

The number of sick units have in fact more than doubled from March 2013 to March 2014 - 222,204 and 468,397 respectively.

The most were in Uttar Pradesh with 77,761, followed by 50,006 units in Maharashtra, 49,003 units in Gujarat, 44,719 in Tamil Nadu, 43,437 units in Andhra Pradesh and 38,835 units in West Bengal.

Listing the steps for revival of closed/sick MSMEs, Minister of State for MSMEs Giriraj Singh told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the revised guidelines for rehabilitation issued on November 1, 2012 by the Reserve Bank of India provide for early detection of sickness, a viability study to form the basis of rehabilitation package to potentially viable sick MSEs and a non-discretionary one time settlement (OTS) scheme for the MSE sector.

"Ministry of MSME has issued a 'Framework for Revival and Rehabilitation of MSMEs' vide a Gazette Notification dated May 29, 2015 for the purpose of facilitating the promotion and development of MSMEs," he added.