PMEGP for micro enterprises: Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, which offers credit to aspiring entrepreneurs to set up their micro units, has extended a margin money subsidy of Rs 900 crore for 22,050 new units, generating over 1.76 lakh employment as of August 31, 2023. According to the data available on the MSME Dashboard, among a total of 128 lenders, State Bank of India disbursed Rs 45.7 crore subsidy for 1,253 units with 10,024 jobs while Punjab National Bank disbursed Rs 81.2 crore subsidy for 2,266 units with 18,128 jobs and Canara Bank disbursed Rs 101 crore for 2,513 units with 20,104 jobs.
Among private lenders, HDFC Bank disbursed Rs 5.8 crore for 41 units with 328 jobs, ICICI Bank disbursed Rs 1.79 crore for 23 units with 184 jobs and Axis Bank disbursed Rs 23 lakh for six units with 48 jobs.
Launched in 2008 and implemented by the Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC), PMEGP enables credit up to Rs 50 lakh (increased from earlier up to Rs 25 lakh) to aspiring entrepreneurs for launching their new manufacturing units and up to Rs 20 lakh (from Rs 10 lakh earlier) for new service units. The scheme was extended over the 15th Finance Commission Cycle from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with an outlay of Rs 13,554.42 crore.
The scheme had enabled 8.25 lakh employment with 1.03 lakh units supported during FY22 while in FY21, 5.95 lakh jobs were created with 74,415 new enterprises launched. Before Covid, 5.33 lakh jobs were generated in FY20 with 66,653 new units set up.
PMEGP was allocated Rs 2,700 crore in this financial year’s budget in comparison to Rs 2,484 crore (revised estimate) in FY23.
With respect to women entrepreneurs, PMEGP assisted 32,626 women-led units during FY23, down by 16.6 per cent from 39,156 women entrepreneurs supported in FY22 but 19.5 per cent up from 27,285 women entrepreneurs backed during FY21, FE Aspire had reported.