Udyam registration: The government’s new Udyam Assist Platform (UAP) launched in January this year — which allows informal micro enterprises (IMEs) not registered under Goods and Services Tax (GST) to get the Udyam registration certificate – has 35 lakh units registered as of August 3, 2023. The data was shared by Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Minister of State in the MSME Ministry in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. At the time of filing this report, UAP had 36.96 lakh IMEs registered in seven months since its launch.
“Government has launched Udyam Assist Platform(UAP) under the MSME formalization project on 11.01.2023 to bring Informal Micro Enterprises (IMEs) under the formal ambit for availing benefits under Priority Sector Lending,” said Verma.
The platform was launched with the inclusion of 8 lakh informal micro enterprises as formal units, according to the MSME ministry. “These 8 lakh units are among the beneficiaries of the government’s scheme for street vendors PM SVANidhi scheme,” a source aware of the scheme had earlier told FE Aspire. The scheme provides for a collateral-free working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 in order to formalise street vendors.
UAP was initially discussed in a report by the standing committee on finance headed by Jayant Sinha, Member of Parliament and former Minister of State for Finance in April last year. According to the report, “Apart from making the registered entities eligible for benefits under government schemes, they can also be seamlessly connected to the fast-emerging digital ecosystem including platforms like GeM, TReDS, Invoicemart, other digital marketplaces, etc.” The units can be made KYC and credit ready to allow them access to various options of financial services at various stages of their growth, according to the report.
To collect the relevant data of these IMEs enterprises from Designated Agencies (DAs) like banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), micro finance institutions (MFIS), small finance banks, regional rural banks, scheduled cooperative banks, etc., and use the data for registering such units, the MSME ministry had authorised SIDBI.
Importantly, to boost IMEs registration, the MSMEs ministry in May this year had made the Aadhaar authentication for such enterprises voluntary.