Public procurement: The government’s procurement of goods and services from micro and small enterprises (MSEs) has crossed the Rs 13,000-crore mark in less than the five-month period (April-August) of the current financial year. According to the data obtained from the public procurement policy monitoring portal MSME Sambandh, out of the total procurement made by 84 central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) worth Rs 32,281 crore, 40 per cent of the procurement amounting to Rs 13,027 crore was made so far from MSEs.
The purchases were made from 52,403 MSEs including 1,831 SC-ST-owned MSEs from which Rs 288 crore-worth procurement was made contributing to 0.89 per cent of the MSE procurement share. Similarly, from 3,989 women-owned MSEs, Rs 381 crore worth of goods were purchased with a share of 1.18 per cent, data showed.
According to the guidelines of the Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises, 25 per cent of the annual procurement made by CPSEs has to be from MSEs. This includes four per cent from MSEs owned by SCs-STs and three per cent from women-owned MSEs.
In FY23, out of Rs 1.75 lakh crore total procurement, 35.69 per cent procurement amounting to Rs 62,710 crore was made from 2.31 lakh MSEs. 0.85 per cent of MSE procurement amounting to Rs 1,484 crore was made from 10,133 SC-ST-owned MSEs and 1.22 per cent amounting to Rs 2,150 crore was made from 16,122 women-owned MSEs, according to the data from the Sambandh portal.
This was above the target set by the government of Rs 42,705 crores for procurement from MSEs in FY23.
Notably, the government last year had announced enhancing the scope of public procurement for MSEs by revising the list of 358 items reserved for purchase from MSEs to add services as well to take the total item count to 469 items. The additional 111 items were 16 services such as architectural and engineering consultancy, operation of canteens, housekeeping services, tailoring, tour operator services, waste collection services, interior decorator services, and more.