New guidelines to implement Vocal for Local initiative

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has issued a slew of guidelines to expedite implementation of projects under the flagship programme PMEGP to hand-hold local production a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “vocal for local” appeal.

KVIC instructed the agencies concerned to scrutinize the applications under PMEGP and forward it to banks for disbursal of funds within 26 days.

The commission aims to bring down this time-frame to 15 days.

It also made it mandatory for implementing agencies to guide and hand-hold the applicants for the formulation of proposals and assist them till sanction of loan. KVIC instructed all its agencies to follow up with banks for the early sanction of loans.

As per the revised guidelines, the Monitoring Cell at KVIC, Mumbai will monitor the application process on a daily basis. Also, it will give feedback to the implementing agencies every fortnight. The progress report will be placed for the perusal of the CEO and Chairman of KVIC.

As per the guidelines, the implementing agencies must ensure that the applicant has secured at least 60 marks out of 100 in the scorecard, at the time of scrutiny.

Similarly, technical feasibility like availability of raw material, manpower, access to transport, and electricity must be examined so as to reduce rejections at the bank level.

The implementing agencies of KVIC should examine the market study, assessment of demand for the proposed product, similar projects in the vicinity, and the market strategy.

The agencies should also ensure that the proposal falls under the selected bank’s jurisdiction to avoid rejection on that ground.