Banks sanction Rs 1.87 lakh cr to 50.7 lakh MSMEs

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry on Thursday said banks have sanctioned loans of about Rs 1,87,579 crore to 50.7 lakh business units under the Rs 3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector impacted by slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Of this, about 27 lakh MSME units received cumulative disbursement of Rs 1,36,140 crore till October 5. The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package announced in May to mitigate the distress caused by lockdown due to Covid-19.

The latest numbers on ECLGS, as released by the finance ministry, comprise disbursements by all 12 public sector banks (PSBs), 24 private sector banks and 31 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

The loan amounts sanctioned by PSBs increased to Rs 81,648.82 crore, of which Rs 68,814.43 crore has been disbursed as of October 5, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a tweet.
At the same time, private sector banks have sanctioned Rs 86,576 crore of loans and disbursed Rs 59,740 crore, while NBFCs sanctioned Rs 3,032 crore with disbursement of Rs 2,227 crore.
In another tweet, she said as many as 33 stranded housing projects with investment of Rs 4,197 crore were accorded final approval under the SWAMIH scheme.

“Special window for Affordable & Mid Income Housing Fund (SWAMIH) is working at a fast pace to provide relief to homeowners. As on 05.10.2020, 33 projects with investment of Rs 4,197 cr accorded final approval & will lead to completion of 25,048 home units,” the finance minister said in tweet.

Overall, 123 projects have now been sanctioned, including final approval to 33 projects, with an investment of Rs 12,079 crore that would target to provide relief to 81,308 homeowners, she said. On May 20, the Cabinet approved additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore at a concessional rate of 9.25 per cent through ECLGS for MSME sector.

Under the scheme, 100 per cent guarantee coverage will be provided by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore to eligible MSMEs and interested Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) borrowers in the form of a guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) facility.

For this purpose, a corpus of Rs 41,600 crore was set up by the government, spread over the current and next three financial years. The scheme will be applicable to all loans sanctioned under GECL facility during the period from the date of announcement of the scheme to October 31 or till the amount of Rs 3 lakh crore is sanctioned under GECL, whichever is earlier.