In the last three years, the number of micro-enterprises receiving financial assistance under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) in Gujarat has halved, reducing the creation of new employment opportunities by 30 percent.
PMEGP is a credit-linked subsidy programme meant for generating employment in the country by setting up micro-entreprises in the non-farm sector. The financial assistance under this scheme is available only to new units where the maximum project cost should not exceed Rs 25 lakh in manufacturing sector and Rs 10 lakh in the service sector.
Under this programme, only 914 units in Gujarat received financial assistance of about Rs 25 crore in 2013-14 fiscal. This only half over the numbers that existed in 2011-12, when over 1863 units were given margin money subsidy of over Rs 61 crore.
Even the estimated employment generated by these units have fallen to 13,420 in 2013-14 to 18,662 in 2011-12, states the figures released by Union Minister of State, Micro Small & Medium Enterprises, Giriraj Singh in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The PMEGP scheme launched in August 2008 targets to generate continuos and sustainable employment opportunities in both urban and rural areas of the country through setting up of micro-enterprises.
In the year 2013-14, over 50,460 units were assisted under the scheme across the country. A total margin money subsidy of Rs 988 crore was releasted to these units that generated employment for about 3.68 lakh people.