MSME grievances: The MSME ministry’s single-window grievance redressal portal Champions launched for MSMEs in June 2020 received 68,617 grievances from MSMEs till July 31, of which 99 per cent – 68,272 grievances were replied, according to the data shared in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha by Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Minister of State in the MSME Ministry. The grievances pertained to policy matters, starting up, credit and finance, etc.
In the current fiscal till July 31, 7,475 grievances were received out of which 7,422 were replied. In FY23, 16,262 grievances were received and 16,221 were replied while 14,752 grievances were received in FY22 and 14,851 were replied so far. The grievance count in FY22 had reduced by around 50 per cent from 30,128 grievances filed in FY21 and 29,778 replied.
Also read: Nearly 60,000 credit, policy-related grievances filed by MSMEs on govt’s Champions portal
The highest number of grievances in the current year were received from Maharashtra (1,417), Tamil Nadu (757), Uttar Pradesh (664), Gujarat (533), and West Bengal (497).
The portal operates a Central Control Room and State Control Rooms in a hub-and-spoke model to facilitate MSMEs through grievance redressal and handholding. It routes queries as per the nature of the complaint to respective branch/bureau/office heads in the MSME Ministry to attend to them.
Prior to the Champions portal, as informed by MSME Minister Narayan Rane in the Lok Sabha in March last year, MSME complaints were resolved through the internet grievance monitoring system (IGMS) up to May 31, 2020. IGMS was launched in 2016 and had redressed 15,277 complaints between FY17 and FY21 (May 8, 2020).
Meanwhile, commemorating the MSME Day 2023 on June 27 this year, Rane had launched the revamped Champions portal with new elements of technology, localisation and feedback. The new portal will employ chatbot technology for automated grievance redressal in order to reduce the turnaround time using artificial intelligence, Dr Rajneesh, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner, MSME Ministry had said in a presentation.