Women-owned small businesses’ share in public procurement goes up; here’s how many benefited

Trade, Imports, Exports for MSMEs: Public procurement portal was launched in December 2017 to monitor the implementation of a minimum 25 per cent of annual purchases by government buyers from micro and small enterprises.

Written by FE News Desk

February 26, 2020 14:03 IST

(Image: Reuters)

Trade, Imports, Exports for MSMEs: The share of women-owned enterprises in the annual procurement of goods and services by central ministries, departments, and central public sector enterprises (CPSE) has grown from zero in FY18 to 0.25 per cent in FY20 so far, according to the data available on the public procurement monitoring portal MSME Sambandh. The portal was launched in December 2017 to monitor the implementation of annual procurement as government buyers are mandated to buy a minimum 25 per cent of their annual purchases from micro and small enterprises (MSE). Through the portal, the ministries and CPSE are able to track their share of purchases from MSEs.

Out of 23.11 per cent procurement in FY18 worth Rs 26,357.46 crore, the women-owned MSEs didn’t have any share in it. However, in FY19, women MSEs had procured 0.15 per cent of the 26.31 per cent procurement share worth Rs 40,376.64 crore from MSEs. The share for the current financial year has already exceeded to a share of 0.25 per cent out of 28.50 per cent procurement made worth Rs 29,914.14 crore so far. The number of women MSEs benefiting and the amount of procurement made from them stood at 1,398 MSEs and Rs 231.50 crore respectively for FY19 and 2,596 MSEs and Rs 261.07 crore respectively in FY20 so far. Overall, Rs 29,914.14 crore of procurement from over 1.16 lakh MSEs was made in the current FY while Rs 40,376.64 crore of goods were bought from nearly 1.28 lakh MSEs in FY19.

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In order to facilitate transparency and efficiency in the public procurement, the government already runs Government e-Marketplace (GeM) wherein 74,657 sellers out of overall more than 3.37 lakh sellers are MSEs having a majority share in the order value at 52.98 per cent. This past Sunday, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had said the artisans and craftsmen showcasing products at the ongoing Hunar Haat programme across the country will soon be listed to the GeM portal.

This article was first uploaded on February twenty-six, twenty twenty, at three minutes past two in the afternoon.