Govt trying to address issue of lower procurement from SC/ ST owned MSEs: Giriraj Singh

New Delhi, June 15 (KNN) Expressing concern over lower than the set target procurement from MSEs especially from SC/ ST owned MSEs, Union MSME Minister has said the government is trying to address the issue.

The procurement by public sector units from micro and small enterprises owned by entrepreneurs belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities remained at 0.47 percent in 2017-18, according to data in MSME Sambandh portal.

During 2017-18, procurement from 2,186 SC/ST owned MSEs stood at Rs 540.75 crore, out of total procurement of Rs 26,102.45 crore from micro and small enterprises by CPSEs, the data showed.

According to the Public Procurement Policy 2012, 4 percent of the total procurement by the CPSEs, Government Departments/ Ministries have to be mandatorily done from micro and small entities owned by SC/ST.

Addressing a press conference here today, Union Minister Giriraj Singh said the government is trying to address the issue of lower procurement from MSEs, especially the ones owned by SC/ST entrepreneurs, and the issue of delayed payment by PSUs through the Sambandh and the Samadhaan portals launched earlier.

MSME Secretary A K Panda said the ministry has written to all CPSEs to revisit their tendering process so that there should not be any entry barriers in procurement.

However, the procurement from all MSEs stood at Rs 261.02 billion in 2017-18, out of the overall procurement of Rs 1152.76 billion.

Panda said the Sambandh portal data for 2017-18 may be subject to revision going forward.