The government has reiterated that all central public sector units have to take proactive measures to achieve the target of 20 per cent annual procurement from micro, small and medium enterprises.
The MSME ministry said that so far 38 central public sector units (CPSUs) have achieved the target.
"The CPSUs have to take proactive action to achieve targets of 20 per cent annual procurement from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) including 4 per cent from MSMEs owned by SC/STs," an official statement quoting MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra said.
Recently, the minister has chaired a meeting to review the implementation of public procurement from MSMEs.
The 20 per cent annual procurement policy was made mandatory by the government from April 2015 with a view to promote MSMEs and startups in the country.
He said that in a bid to promote start-ups, the ministry has also issued a circular allowing PSUs to relax the norms of 'prior experience and prior turnover' for those MSMEs which can deliver goods as per prescribed technical and quality specifications.
In the meeting, Mishra mentioned that a SC/ST hub has been set up to promote the development of SC/ST entrepreneurs.
"This hub will provide avenues for SC/ST entrepreneurs under public procurement policy, encourage them to register under Udyog Aadhar Memorandum (UAM), encourage them to register products manufactured by them, facilitate their participation in vendor development programmes," he added.
He also highlighted that to improve ease of doing business, his ministry has launched UAM which is online registration for MSMEs. So far more than 3.8 lakh UAMs have been filed.
