In a bid to strengthen the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs), Finance Minister Piyush Goyal launched a scheme to sanction loans upto Rs 1 crore in 59 minutes on Friday in the last budget of the current Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government.
While presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20 in Parliament, Goyal said that 25% sourcing by all the Government Undertakings will now have to be from SMEs. Of this, the material to the extent of at least 3% will be sourced from women-owned SMEs.
Goyal while highlighting the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), that transactions of over Rs.17,500 crore have taken place, resulting in savings of 25-28% on an average.
GeM, created by our government two years ago, has transformed public procurement by making it fully transparent, inclusive and efficient.
In her presentation, he announced that the GeM platform is now being extended to all Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).
“MSMEs have an opportunity to sell their products through GeM”, the Finance Minister said.
He disclosed that the government has recently assigned the subject of “promotion of internal trade including retail trading and welfare of traders, and their employees” to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, which will now be renamed as the Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade.
