Thirty Eight CPSUs have achieved the target of 20% public procurement from MSMEs in the just concluded financial year. This was revealed in a meeting chaired by Shri Kalraj Mishra, Union Minister for MSME, to review the implementation of Public Procurement from MSMEs. Shri Mishra highlighted the importance of this policy which was made mandatory by the Government from April 2015, to the promote MSMEs and Startups in the country. He said that to promote the Startups in India his ministry has issued a circular dated 10th March 2016 that allows Central PSUs to relax the norms of ‘prior experience and prior turnover’ for those MSMEs who can deliver the goods as per prescribed technical & quality specifications. He also highlighted that the CPSUs have to take proactive action to achieve targets of 20% annual procurement from MSMEs including 4% from MSMEs owned by SC/STs.
Shri Mishra mentioned that a SC/ST Hub has been setup in his ministry to promote the development of SC/ST entrepreneurs. This Hub will provide avenues for SC/ST entrepreneurs under public procurement policy, encourage them to register under Udyog Aadhar Memorandum, encourage them to register products manufactured by them, facilitate their participation in vendor development programmes organized by CPSUs and sponsor their applications under PMEGP. He also highlighted that to improve ease of doing business his ministry has launched Udyog Aadhar Memorandum, an online registration for MSMEs in October 2015. Within a short span more than 3.8 lakh UAMs have been filed.
Minister of State Shri Giriraj Singh also highlighted the importance of developing critical components, import substitution, maintenance of spares of high tech machines and equipments by CPSUs. He also highlighted that organizing vendor development programmes and entering into rate contracts with MSMEs are the key to enhancing public procurement. The meeting was attended by representatives from 44 CPSUs. During the meeting, issues related to achieving 20% procurement targets were highlighted and the ways to achieve them were also discussed.