PSUs' buy from small business rose 11% to Rs 41,699 crore in FY21

Public procurement by public sector undertakings (PSUs) from micro and small enter­prises rose nearly 11 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 41,699 crore in the fiscal year 2020-21, according to Public Sector Enterprises Survey. 

This has been an increase from Rs 37,680-crore procu­rement made from small businesses in FY20. However, PSUs collectively have barely managed to meet the govern­ment-mandated 25 per cent minimum annual procure­ment from small businesses, according to the Public Sector Enterprises Survey.

In FY21, PSUs made 24.9 per cent of their annual procure­ment from micro and small businesses. Total procurement made by PSUs in FY21 was Rs 1.67 trillion. In FY20, annual procu­rement from MSE was 28 per cent, tad above the Centre’s 25 per cent threshold. Of the total procure­ment of Rs 1.67 trillion, about Rs 2,948 crore was done through the Government-e-Marketplace (GeM) portal. 

Land owned by PSUs

About 239 of 389 PSUs owned about 1.61 million acres land collectively, the survey showed. Of the entire landh­olding, about 305,000 acres were owned by 27 PSUs in Jharkhand followed by 195,000 acres by 20 PSUs in Chhattisgarh. Of the total land holdings, 1.04 million acres is freehold land while 650,000 acres were leasehold land.

The Centre had also asked PSUs to share the circle rate or indicate market value of such land parcels owned by them, Business Standard had earlier reported. 

 The government had planned to share the value of such land held by PSUs in the survey in a bid to boost investors’ interest in the listed entities. However, such an exercise could not be completed as all PSUs have yet to share the data, an official said.