KVIC achieves over 100% subsidy target

New Delhi: The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has achieved more than 100 per cent target of subsidy in 2016-17 allotted for implementation of Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP), an independent report said.

The report said, "While in 2008-09, the utilization of total subsidy allotted by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) for implementation of Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP) was less than 50 per cent, in 2016-17 – it even crossed the 100 per cent mark, i.e. 100.37 percent."

The report prepared by Gurugram-based Management Development Institute said, "Nearly 4 lakh new employments were generated, with an estimated project cost of Rs 4,800 crore, which is a huge growth of approximately 24 per cent with respect to financial year 2015-16."

After physical verification of 10,044 PMEGP units (five per cent of the total units) across the country and collecting data from the beneficiaries, stakeholders and external sources, the evaluation study said that average employment per project was 7.66 people, with an average cost of Rs 94,855 for generating unit employment and an average cost per project of Rs 7,26,760.

The study also indicates that the average age of the beneficiaries was 36.8 years and 42.39 per cent of them were from SC, ST and OBC categories, besides 5.8 per cent of minorities and 10 per cent women.

"The maximum and minimum costs for generating unit employment were Rs 2,65,412 (Nagaland) and Rs 25,070 (Tamil Nadu)," the report said.

"With 53 per cent and 45 per cent of beneficiaries involved in manufacturing and services respectively, collateral taken by the banks over and above hypothecation of assets by banks were recorded 46 per cent and 54 per cent respectively," it added further.

"In the recent budget of 2018-19, we have got a Rs 1,800 crore with respect to previous 2017-18 fiscal's Rs 1,024 crore, which is 78 per cent growth. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a lot of affection with Khadi as he considers it a tool of economical transformation of the country, we will leave no stone unturned to follow and implement his vision," KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said. In all the states, the number of district-level task force committee meetings was less than three specified value of three-quarter, it said.