Government procures goods worth Rs 1,952 crore from MSEs in first two months of FY22

A little over two months into FY22, the government has bought goods from micro and small enterprises (MSEs) that account for 32 percent of its overall purchases so far.

Central ministries, departments and central public sector enterprises spent Rs 6,064.94 crore on buying goods so far this financial year, of which purchases worth Rs 1,952.75 crore were made from 5,243 MSEs, according to data on MSME Sambandh, the public procurement portal launched by the Central government.

Government organisations have been asked to buy 25 percent of their annual public procurements from MSEs. The government had revised the procurement target to 25 percent in 2018 from 20 percent earlier and it has been exceeded in each of the past three financial years.

The share of total procurements from MSEs stood at 28 percent in FY21, 30 percent in FY20 and 26 percent in FY19.

Significant purchases from MSEs this year include those by the power ministry (Rs 277 crore), heavy industries & public enterprises ministry (Rs 174.9 crore), defence ministry (Rs 84 crore), mines ministry (Rs 78 crore) and steel ministry (Rs 77 crore).

Despite surpassing overall procurement targets from MSEs for three years, purchases from MSEs owned by Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and women, which are earmarked at 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively, have remained below the threshold.

The procurement share for both women and SC/ST entrepreneurs was only 0.56 percent in FY21.

MSME Sambandh is an online monitoring portal launched by the government in December 2017 to implement the procurement policy and keep a record of public purchases made by government departments and ministries.