There were 5.37 lakh sick units in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector, which contributes 8 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product, as of March this year, Parliament was informed on Monday.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of sick units at 84,063, followed by Gujarat at 49,383 sick units and Maharashtra with 49,293 such units, as per provisional data compiled by the Reserve Bank of India.

Giving this information in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Monday, Minister of State for MSMEs Giriraj Singh also informed the House that there was no capital infusion of ₹24,000 crore under the 12{+t}{+h} Plan period (2012-17) for the sector.

However, the MSME Ministry was allocated ₹24,124 crore as Plan budget to boost the sector during the Plan period, he added.

Delayed payments

Singh admitted that delayed payment from large enterprises was a major problem faced by MSMEs, but said it would be “wrong to conclude that a majority of MSMEs receive payment only after 90 days or more.”

He said to overcome the problem of delayed payments, Micro and Small Enterprise Facilitation Councils had been established in all States. However, up to August 31 this fiscal, out of the 375 delayed payment cases filed, decisions were taken only on 128 cases.

In 2014-15, out of 792 cases filed, decision were taken in 495 and in 2013-14, out of 606 cases filed, 331 cases were disposed.

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