Central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and the central government agencies have paid over Rs 21,670 crore to micro, small and medium enterprises between May and November, while procurement from the companies has increased by more than 2.5 times in the same time period.
The trend of procurement and payment has been on the rise since October, the finance ministry said Thursday, after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman took a review of the situation and expressed satisfaction and appreciation on the excellent work done by the Ministry of MSME.
Sitharaman had asked government agencies and enterprises to clear dues of MSMEs within 45 days, so as to provide liquidity to the troubled segment as part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat package announced in May.
“The highest level of procurement was achieved in October of over Rs 5100 crore and payment of over Rs 4100 crore,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
Going by the reports received in first 10 days for November 2020, this level of performance is expected to be surpassed as procurement of about Rs 4700 crore and payment of about Rs 4000 crore have already been reported, the ministry added.
MSMEs have taken the brunt of the economic impact due to the Covid 19 pandemic which prompted the government to take several steps including clearing of dues from government to such companies.
The support was critical particularly in the months of September and October since the cash flows are needed for production of goods and services which could be particularly sold during the festival time.
As a result of the steps taken by the government, the pendency of payment has gone down in terms of percentage against procurement value, the ministry added.
“An on-line reporting system was developed by the ministry for the CPSEs and government of India ministries to report details of total transactions, total payment as well as pending dues at the end of every month,” it said.
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