The Odisha Government has urged the Centre to undertake an MSME Census immediately to have a database on the sector, which would help the Government get a real picture of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
As the Union Government has stopped all-India census of registered MSMEs, getting authentic data on the sector has become impossible, say State Government officials.
Industry data show that over 2.90 lakh MSMEs with an investment of over Rs 14,480 crore have come up in Odisha till August 2017. However, as per the Sixth Economic Census-2013, which was published in 2016, reveals that over 17 lakh non-agricultural establishments are there in the State.
So, there is a huge gap of about 14 lakh between the industry data and the survey, which is leading to confusion and nobody knows which one is authentic.
In this backdrop, the Odisha Government has urged the Union Ministry of MSME to restart the all-India survey of the MSME sector to reveal the actual scenario. Sources said State MSME Secretary lN Gupta has pleaded this with Union MSME Secretary Arun Kumar Panda in a recent videoconference.
Since in absence of authentic data taking up policy and programmes is posing a problem, an MSME Census is necessary to know the ground position, said Gupta.
Another issue was raised over the Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM), under which a person can feed information about the details of his industry to the national portal. It has been found that in lots of cases information fed by persons are found not authentic.
And for the General Managers of the District Industry Centres (DICs), 100-per cent verification is just not possible. In Odisha, out of 63,3612 UAMs, only 2,272 were verified, which is merely 3.58 per cent. Genuine entrepreneurs seeking UAMs for their additional enterprises are facing problem due to linkage with Aadhaar.
Gupta raised the issue with Panda, who has promised to look into the matter, said sources.
Besides, funding of the MSME sector by banks is posing a major problem as the bankers are not coming out to help the entrepreneurs, pointed out the State officials.
The Union Secretary said the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) has enormous potentials and different types of subsidies are available for MSMEs ranging from 15% to 35%.
Odisha, West Bengal and several other State Governments pointed out that banks are reluctant to disburse loans. Panda urged the State officials to rake up the issue in the State-level Bankers’ Committees (SlBCs).
He also promised to take up the issue with the Reserve Bank of India and the Union Department of Financial Services once the State Governments provide the detailed inputs in this regard.