Ministry of MSME constitutes District-level Advisory Committee to monitor PMEGP

A slew of measures recently taken by the Ministry for improved implementation of its flagship scheme are expected to fight economic slowdown by faster creation of enterprises and jobs in the micro sector, says the Minister MSME  The Minister for MSME Shri K H Muniyappa, at a press conference held here today on the recent initiatives for enhancing the effectiveness of implementation of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) said that PMEGP is the major credit linked subsidy programme being implemented by the Ministry. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) on 30 August 2013 constituted an Advisory Committee for each district of the country for monitoring the progress of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) with active involvement of Members of Parliament from the district. The Minister highlighted that the Ministry of MSME has approved constitution of a District Level Advisory Committee comprising around 30 members which would provide overall guidance and suggestions for the implementation of the programme. The committee would liaise and coordinate with KVIC, State Government and other agencies including Banks for effective mobilization of young entrepreneurs under PMEGP. It would also ensure that the scheme is implemented in accordance with its guidelines. The Committee would be chaired by the Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) elected from the District having the largest part of the district under his/ her Parliamentary constituency. Other Members of Parliament of Lok Sabha having part constituency in the district would be co-chairperson and Member of Parliament of Rajya Sabha will be a member. The other members would include Members of State Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, Chairperson of Zilla Panchayat, representatives of SC/ST, OBC, minority and women and one professional from social work/ social science, representatives of bank and financial institutions. District Magistrate/ Collector will be its member-convener. The committee will meet once in every quarter. KVIC which is the nodal agency for the scheme at the national level has been asked to take necessary action. On the major steps taken by the Ministry the Minister said “towards speedy and effective implementation of the scheme through expeditious monitoring at the district level. The Ministry has already issued instructions to KVIC that the units assisted under the scheme are actually set up within a time frame of 100 days”. Moreover, the Ministry has also in recent months expanded the District Level Task Force Committee (which is mandated to select the beneficiaries under the scheme) by inclusion of Members of social categories like SC/ST and women. For the convenience of candidates applying for the PMEGP assistance, Ministry has asked KVIC to ensure that applications can be filed online and the beneficiaries are able to find out the status of their application through an online monitoring system. This online system of ‘e-tracking’ can be accessed through the Ministry’s website www.msme.gov.in and KVIC website www.kvic.org.in. the Minister added. Highlighting the PMEGP as a major credit linked subsidy programme the Minister said that the Government has released Rs 5251.51 crore under the scheme since 2008-09 and more than 2.22 lakh projects have already been assisted, providing employment to an estimated 20.42 lakh persons. The Government has been enhancing the allocation for PMEGP every year and the allocation for the current year for 2013-14 is Rs 1418.28 crore for existing 1.03 lakh projects creating employment for over 8 lakh persons. The Ministry has also directed KVIC and the implementing agencies to ensure that at least 100 projects per district are assisted under the scheme this year. The allocation for the three disaster affected districts of Uttarakhand has also been increased substantially which would help re-build the entrepreneurial base of the region. On the issue of plan allocation, the Minister said “For the country, as a whole, the outlay for XII Five Year Plan under PMEGP has been kept at Rs 8060 crore which is 70% higher than the allocation of XI Plan for the scheme for creating over 5 lakh enterprises creating employment for about 40 lakh persons”. Further, the Minister added, collateral free loans are available for PMEGP projects costing upto Rs 25 lakh, as follows: (a) vide RBI circular dated 6 May 2010, Banks have been mandated not to accept collateral security in the case of loans upto Rs 10 lakh extended to units in the micro and small enterprises sector and (b) under the Credit Guarantee Scheme of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises. The scheme is designed to create productive employment through entrepreneurship (especially in the manufacturing sector) and arrest migration of workers and artisans to urban centres and other areas in search of employment. Present at the Conference were Shri Madhav Lal, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, Shri S.N Tripathi Joint Secretary, and Udai Pratap Singh, CEO, KVIC.