No global tender for govt order up to Rs 200 crore in MSME sector, says PM Modi

New Delhi, June 30   

No global tender will be floated any more for government orders up to Rs 200 crore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Thursday.

Addressing the ‘Udyami Bharat’ programme for the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) at Vigyan Bhawan here, Modi said the decision amounted to making “reservations” for Indian companies for government orders of up to Rs 200 crore.

However, the companies should not think of taking undue advantage of the restriction imposed on foreign suppliers or compromise on quality of products supplied by them to the government.

“Rather, the products should be of such quality that the government is forced to increase this limit to Rs 500 crore,” Modi said.

“If India earns Rs 100 today, Rs 30 comes because of our MSME sector. For us, MSME means maximum support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises,” Modi said, adding that in order to strengthen the MSME sector, the government has increased the budget for the sector by more than 650 per cent in the last eight years.

The Prime Minister said about 11 crore people in India, including a large number of those living in rural areas, are involved in the MSME sector.

He said Rs 3.5 lakh crore was extended to the MSME sector through the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme during the covid pandemic and 1.5 crore jobs could be saved in the sector because of the step.

Modi launched the Rs 6,000 crore ‘Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance’ scheme at the function. The scheme aims to scale up the implementation capacity and coverage of MSMEs in the states.

During the event, the PM also launched ‘Capacity Building of First-Time MSME Exporters’ scheme. The scheme aims to encourage MSMEs to offer products and services of international standards for the global market. The objective of the scheme is to enhance the participation of Indian MSMEs in the global value chain and help them realise their export potential.