Employment opportunities in MSMEs

Ministry of MSME, through Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), is implementing Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) for assisting entrepreneurs in setting up of new units in the non-farm sector. It aims to bring widely dispersed traditional artisans/ rural and urban unemployed youth and give them self-employment opportunities to the extent possible, at their doorstep.

Under PMEGP, General Category beneficiaries can avail of Margin Money (MM) subsidy of 25% of the project cost in rural areas and 15% in urban areas. For beneficiaries belonging to Special Categories such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, Minorities, Women, Ex-servicemen, Physically Handicapped, Transgenders, beneficiaries belonging to Northeastern Region, Hill and Border areas, and Aspirational Districts, etc., the Margin Money subsidy is 35% in rural areas and 25% in urban areas. The maximum cost of project is Rs. 50 lakhs in the Manufacturing sector and Rs. 20 lakhs in the Service sector.

Also, own contribution of beneficiaries under Special Category is 05% and 10% for General Category beneficiaries.

Since 2018-19, existing PMEGP/REGP/MUDRA enterprises are also supported based on past good performances with 2^nd loan for upgradation and expansion. Under 2^nd Loan, maximum project cost admissible for Margin Money subsidy under Manufacturing sector is Rs. 1.00 crore and for Service sector, it is Rs. 25 Lakh. Eligible subsidy on 2^nd loan for all categories is 15% of project cost (20% for NER & Hill States).

Number of units assisted, Margin Money subsidy disbursed and estimated employment generated under PMEGP in the country from FY 2019-20 to FY 2021-22, year-wise is as follows:

There is no downfall in employment generated during FY 2021-22 as compared to the FY 2020-21 under PMEGP. In fact, there has been an increase of ~39% in employment generated under PMEGP from 595,320 in FY 2020-21 to 825,752 in FY 2021-22.

Following steps are being taken by KVIC to generate more employment opportunities in the country:

1. Awareness camps, workshops and exhibitions at all levels are being organized in order to propagate the KVI schemes for generation of employment opportunities.
2. Publicity of KVI Schemes through print and electronic media.
3. To supplement the income of farmers, adivasis and unemployed youth of the country, KVIC launched Honey Mission during 2017-18. Under Honey Mission, every person is provided 10 bee boxes with live bee hives.
4. Under Kumbhar SashaktikaranProgramme, KVIC is uplifting rural pottery artisan’s livelihood by providing skill upgradation training and providing new home scale energy efficient equipment like electric pottery wheels, blunger, pug mill, kiln etc. for producing good quality of products.
5. KVIC, through www.ekhadiindia.com, www.khadiindia.goin has started online selling of all KVI products.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.