MSMEs Cross 3.5 Crore Registration Milestone On Udyam Portal

The Udyam registration portal, under the MSME Ministry, has recently surpassed the milestone of registering 3.5 crore micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). According to data from the Udyam portal, as of Tuesday, 3.55 crore MSMEs were officially registered, with 3.48 crore categorized as micro enterprises, 5.97 lakh as small enterprises, and 54,939 as medium enterprises.

The data revealed that out of the total, 1.27 crore micro enterprises utilized the Udyam Assist Platform (UAP) for registration. Launched in January 2023, the UAP facilitates the registration of informal micro enterprises (IMEs) not registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), enabling them to obtain the Udyam registration certificate and access benefits related to priority sector lending.

To register such enterprises, Designated Agencies (DAs) such as banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), microfinance institutions (MFIs), small finance banks, regional rural banks, scheduled cooperative banks, among others, utilize IMEs' data, including Aadhaar and bank transactions.

Employment And Export Highlights

The cumulative employment generated by the 3.55 crore registered MSMEs on the Udyam platform was reported at 16.67 crore. Among the registered enterprises, 59.46 lakh were engaged in manufacturing, while 1.68 crore were in the service sector. In terms of exports, 1.96 lakh were identified as export units, contributing to goods worth Rs 15.28 lakh crore.

Since its launch on July 1, 2020, in the post-COVID period, the Udyam portal achieved 2 crore registrations in June of the following year and hit the 1 crore mark in August 2022. The 3-crore milestone was reached in October of the same year.

Withdrawal Trends Persist

Despite the continuous influx of MSMEs into the formalized ecosystem, a notable number of Udyam-registered enterprises have opted to withdraw their registrations. Between July 2020 and December 8, 2023, 32,298 units canceled their registration, citing business shutdowns.

Minister of State in the MSME Ministry, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, disclosed in a written reply in December last year that 12,611 units had canceled their registrations due to business closure as of December 8 in the current fiscal year, nearing the FY23 count of 13,290 MSMEs withdrawing their registrations. Additionally, 6,222 MSMEs in FY22 and 175 MSMEs in FY21 had canceled their registrations due to business closures.