PANAJI
Goa is witnessing a decline in the registration of new small-scale industries in the current fiscal, with the number thus far at 3,281, much below the number registered in the Covid pandemic years of 2020-21 and 2021-22, data sourced from answers furnished in Parliament and also the Centre’s enterprise portal have revealed.
Back in the pandemic years, Goa had a robust 5,900 new small-scale industries registered in the first year (2020-21) and a lower number of 4,392 units registered in the second year of the pandemic (2021-22).
Although the current fiscal has another quarter left to go from January to March next year, sources in the Department of Industries, Trade and Commerce told The Goan that it is improbable that another thousand units will be registered in that period to beat the 4,392 figures of 2021-22.
Year-on-year, the decline in the gross number of new small-scale industries in comparison to last year (2022-23) is much steeper. Last year there were 5,627 new small-scale industries registered in the State.
The data of both small as well as large industries are now available on the Central government’s enterprise portal where all new establishments have to register.
Goa’s industry growth is usually powered by its several industrial estates administered by the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), which allocates ready and developed plots to small-scale industry investors at these estates. Recently, the State government has commissioned the Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) at Tuem, which it hopes will take off very soon.
