Nitin Gadkari says no data maintained by government in MSME sector due to Covid impact

Even as the country’s micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) has been among the sectors hit hardest due to the Covid induced lockdown, there is no official record maintained for the same by the government. While multiple schemes were announced by the Centre to help Covid-hit MSMEs recover, however, as MSMEs are there in both formal and informal sector, data regarding temporary or permanent closure of the units are not maintained by the Government of India in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), said MSME minister Nitin Gadkari in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The minister said that the figures of the real GDP in India during the first quarter of 2020-21 indicated that economic activity contracted due to the strict lockdown measures imposed by the Government and this contraction also had an impact on the MSME sector.

In reply to another question, Gadkari cited a study undertaken by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to assess the impact of the pandemic on the micro-units set up under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).

The minister noted that 88 per cent of the PMEGP beneficiaries reported that they were negatively affected while the remaining 12 per cent were benefitted due to Covid. According to the MSME Ministry’s FY20 report, over 99 per cent of 6.33 crore MSMEs are micro-enterprises in India.