Govt data reveals 10K MSMEs closed since 2016; majority during pandemic

New Delhi, July 27 (KNN) From 2016 to 2022 about 10,067 MSMEs have been shut and 96 per cent of closure happened between 2019 and 2022, said Minister of State (MoS) Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in the Rajya Sabha.

The data is sourced from the Udyam registration portal and the erstwhile Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM).

In the first three years about 400 MSMEs were shut which is 4 per cent of total closure, said the minister.

The national MSME Federation - Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) has however downplayed the report on closure.

“The closure should not be construed as shut down due to economic reasons alone. There is insufficient information about number of units closed to make any meaningful inference. The closure could be due to many reason i.e. a unit might have migrated to large or duplicate/ erroneous entries deleted or may be due to death of a partner or proprietor,” said Anil Bhardwaj Secretary General, FISME.

The number of new enterprises registered during the same period may be much higher, he added.

Approximately 2,870 MSMEs registered on the Udyam portal were shut between April 1, 2022, and July 20, 2022, along with employment loss for 19,862 people, said the minister.

Similarly, 6,222 Udyam-registered MSMEs were shut in FY22 with 42,662 people losing jobs. Between July 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, 175 Udyam units were closed and 724 jobs were lost.  (KNN Bureau)