India’s new paperless portal for MSME registrations crosses 2-million mark

Data from the MSME Ministry showed that as of February 1, the portal had registered 2.03 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), an increase of 84.4% from the 1.1 million registrations as of November 7, 2020.  

“On July 1, 2020, after enactment of new definition of MSMEs, a new registration portal ‘Udyam Registration’ has been launched by Ministry of MSME and so far, 2,029,095 MSMEs are registered on the portal in all India,” said MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari in a written reply to a question posed in the upper house of Parliament. 

The minister said MSMEs are not required to upload any documents or proof except the Aadhaar number for registration.  

The government has also implemented a single-window system at Champions Control Rooms, which are set up at MSME Development Institutes across India, and district industries centres for facilitating the process. 

In August last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had asked to clarify on the registration of existing businesses under Entrepreneurs Memorandum (EM) part II and/or Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM).  

RBI had said that existing EMs part II and/or UAMs of MSMEs obtained before June 30, 2020, will continue to remain valid till March 31, 2021.  

The ministry said businesses had asked for clarity on whether existing registrations would remain valid after the government’s June 26, 2020 notification on the classification of MSMEs as per the new definition and specification of the form and procedure for registration with effect from July 1, 2020. 

“The portal will help the government in identifying the possible beneficiaries of various schemes and packages announced for MSMEs such as collateral-free credit, subordinate debt for distressed MSMEs, etc, and pass these benefits directly to them. This will also help in saving time and cost for small businesses,” said Sanjiv Layek, Executive Secretary, World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME). 

According to the MSME Ministry, out of more than 1.0 million registrations as of October 31 last year, 372,000 registered came from the manufacturing segment, while 631,000 belonged to the service sector.  

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In addition, micro-enterprises formed the highest share of 93.17%, while only 5.62% and 1.21% were small and medium enterprises, respectively. 

Udyam Registration is currently integrated with the Central Board of Direct Taxes and GST networks along with the public procurement portal Government e-Marketplace for end-to-end digital registration by MSMEs, according to Financial Express.