The government’s Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which supports aspiring entrepreneurs to set up micro units and manufacturing and service sectors through bank-finance subsidy, has enabled 9.86 lakh units and 80.52 lakh jobs so far since its launch back in 2008. The scheme offers subsidies from 15 per cent to 35 per cent for loans up to Rs 50 lakh for setting up a manufacturing unit and Rs 20 lakh for a service unit.
In the current fiscal, as of December 12, 28,496 units were established with an estimated 2.28 lakh employment, according to the data shared by Shobha Karandlaje, Minister of State in the MSME Ministry in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
In FY24, 89,118 units were established and 7.12 lakh jobs were enabled.
Out of total 9.86 lakh units established so far, the majority 7.88 lakh were set up in rural areas with employment generation of 64.55 lakh while the remaining 1.98 lakh were set up in urban areas with 16.01 lakh job creation.
Under PMEGP, general category beneficiaries can avail subsidy of 25 per cent of the project cost in rural areas and 15 per cent in urban areas. For beneficiaries belonging to special categories such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, OBCs, minorities, women, ex-servicemen, physically handicapped, transgenders, beneficiaries belonging to aspirational districts, Northeastern Region, Hill and Border areas, etc., the subsidy is 35 per cent in rural areas and 25 per cent in urban areas.
Since 2018-19, existing PMEGP and MUDRA enterprises are also supported based on their past good performances with a second loan for upgradation and expansion, Karandlaje said.
“Under 2nd Loan, the maximum project cost admissible for margin money (MM) subsidy under the manufacturing sector is Rs 1 crore and for the service sector is Rs 25 lakh. Eligible subsidy on 2nd loan for all categories is 15 per cent of project cost (20 per cent for NER and hill states),” the minister added.