61,469 MSMEs registered under the government’s Udyam Registration portal have been closed as of November 15, 2024 since the launch of the portal on July 1, 2020. According to the data shared in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, 60,909 micro units, 507 small units and 53 medium-sized units are shut.
Over 12,000 MSMEs have been shut down in the last four months with the total count of closed units growing from 49,342 as of July 25, 2024 and 13,290 in FY23 while FY22 saw the closure of 6,222 MSMEs and FY21 recorded 175 units shutting down.
The total count of closed MSMEs so far was 0.1 per cent of over 5.57 crore MSME registrations on the Udyam portal.
Maximum closures have been recorded in Maharashtra with 15,220 units shut followed by 7,894 units closed in Tamil Nadu, 5,972 in Gujarat, 4,994 in Rajasthan, and 3,769 in Uttar Pradesh.
The data on job loss due to the closure of MSMEs was not disclosed by Goyal in his response.
“MSMEs de-registered or showed closure on the portal due to a number of reasons such as change in the company owner, certificate not required anymore, duplicate registration, and such other reasons,” MSME Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had informed Parliament in July this year.
The total job loss reported due to the closure of MSMEs as of July 2024 was 3,17,641.
While data on closed MSMEs is derived from the Udyam portal, there is no survey by the government on the units shut so far.
Minister of State in the MSME Ministry Shobha Karandlaje on Monday informed that no survey for closed MSMEs has been conducted so far. The minister was responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha on whether the government has conducted any survey of closed units and steps taken to revive and rebuild such MSMEs during the last five years.