Central govt depts ignore women-run MSMEs

The best performer was the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, which bought over Rs173.6 crore as against the target of Rs73 cr from women-run MSMEs

New Delhi: Only eight of the 54 Union Ministries exceeded the target of procurement from the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) run by women in 2021-22. As many as 23 ministries were not even given any targets, one of them being the Ministry of Women & Child Development, official sources told Bizz Buzz. Further, 12 ministries were given targets lower than Rs 5 crore.

The best performer was the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution. Given the target of Rs73 crore, it went on to buy over Rs173.6 crore from women-run MSMEs.

The ministry also did very well in buying goods and services from the MSMEs owned by Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe persons. The target for the last fiscal was Rs 97.3 crore, whereas the achievement was over Rs 134 crore.

In general, the ministry was expected to purchase goods and services worth Rs 608.4 crore from MSMEs, whereas it purchased Rs 2,017 crore.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution's sterling performance was not replicated by any other ministry in the last fiscal.

The Ministries of Commerce, Housing & Urban Development, Minority Affairs, New & Renewable Energy, Social Justice & Empowerment, Textiles, and Tribal Affairs also exceeded the targets of purchases from women-run MSMEs, but each of them had targets below Rs 5 crore.

The Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers had the target of Rs 152.7 crore, but the purchases were Rs 18 crore. The corresponding figures for the Ministry of Civil Aviation were Rs 165 crore and Rs 5.4 crore, respectively; for the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Rs 1,579.4 crore and Rs 601.8 crore; for the Ministry of Coal, 426.5 crore and Rs 75 crore; for the Ministry of Defence, Rs 329.4 crore and Rs 282 crore; for the Ministry of Heavy Industries, Rs 271.1 crore and Rs 35.7 crore, for the Ministry of Power, Rs 276.5 crore and Rs 147.3 crore; and for the Ministry of Steel, Rs 293 crore and Rs 80.2 crore.