A proposal that could lift spirits of small and micro enterprises, central government ministries and public sector undertakings have been told to procure ‘at least’ 20 per cent of their annual value of goods or services from SME sector.

The change has been made in provision 6 of the policy wherein the phrase “up to” has been substituted with “at least”.

According to the revised norms, SMEs are now eligible to supply “at least” 20 per cent of the requirement at the lowest quoted price in a bidding.

The earlier provision was that SMEs were allowed to supply only “up to” 20 per cent at the lowest price.

The government had introduced a public procurement policy for micro and small enterprises. Under this, every central government ministries, departments and public sector undertakings has to procure a minimum 20 per cent of their total annual value of goods or services from micro and small enterprises.