Vivad Se Vishwas scheme: Industry body PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the government to extend the date for registering claims by MSME vendors till the end of the current financial year under the scheme Vivad Se Vishwas I – Relief for MSMEs. The scheme was introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this year’s budget to settle pending disputes related to government contracts during the Covid pandemic. The scheme was launched in April this year for the submission of claims for relief on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal.
The last date to file submission was July 31. MSMEs which were unable to execute government contracts during the Covid period were allowed a 95 per cent refund of the performance security, 95 per cent of the bid security, 95 per cent of the liquidated damages (LD), and 95 per cent of the risk purchase amount forfeited or deducted under the scheme.
In a letter to Finance Secretary TV Somanathan on October 19, the chamber’s executive director Ranjeet Mehta said, “As the policy- Vivad se Vishwas Tak has been introduced by the Govt. of India to safeguard and protect the MSMEs in the country from the rigors of enforcement of penal provisions in the Government contracts pertaining the Covid-19 period, its proper implementation should not be allowed to be stymied by a clause mentioning a very short time limit of less than 2 ½ months granted for registration of existing disputes on GeM portal, which seems to have been added to the circular inadvertently.”
A copy of the letter was shared by the chamber with FE Aspire on Monday.
The chamber noted that it has received representations from MSMEs that they are unable to lodge their claims for relief on the dedicated link of the GeM portal where a message pops up stating that “As per VSV-1 Scheme guidelines, claims cannot be submitted posted 31st July 2023.”
“In view of the above, we earnestly request your kind and quick attention for advising the concerned department to issue suitable amendment in the Ministry’s order dated 11 April 2023 for directing the GeM to make a provision for registering all such cases seeking the relief, by extending the tenure for submission of their claims until the close of financial year 31 March 2024, along with communicating it to all the Ministries and Defence Procuring Entities so that this relief policy can be executed properly and effectively,” the letter read.
For filing the claim, the original delivery period of the contract or completion period stipulated in the contract had to be between February 19, 2020, and March 31, 2022. Moreover, only the government-registered MSMEs were allowed under the scheme with details including contract number, contracting authority, paying authority and the deducted amount with respect to the contract applicable with the respective procuring entity.
According to a finance ministry’s statement on September 26, the government has accepted more than 10,000 claims by MSMEs, leading to a grant of more than Rs 256 crore to MSMEs. The highest relief amount of Rs 116.47 crore was granted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) in 2,807 claims accepted.