Atmanirbhar Bharat report card: Rs 25k cr disbursed to farmers, Rs 1.18 lakh cr credited to MSMEs so far

Banks have approved the purchase of a portfolio of Rs 25,055.5 crore as on August 28 under the Rs 45,000 crore partial credit guarantee scheme 2.0 for NBFCs, HFCs and MFIs for fresh lending to small businesses and individuals.

The Ministry of Finance on Sunday shared an update on the progress of the multiple schemes under the Rs 20-lakh-crore Atmanirbhar Bharat package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May. According to the ministry, Rs 25,000 crore has been disbursed to farmers as on August 28, 2020, under the Rs 30,000 crore additional emergency working capital funding through National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The remaining Rs 5,000 under the Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) was allocated to NABARD by the Reserve Bank of India for smaller non-banking financial companies (NBFC) and NBFC-MFIs. “NABARD is finalising operational guidelines to roll it out soon,” the ministry said.

NABARD had also launched the Structured Finance & Partial Guarantee scheme in August for unrated NBFCs and MFIs to secure credit from lenders. The bank had also collaborated with two agencies and banks wherein the credit eligibility for such small MFIs will be enhanced by five-six times. The ministry said that post-deployment of Rs 500 crore earmarked for this scheme, “credit availment by those small NBFCs/MFIs to an extent of Rs 2500 to Rs 3000 crore is envisaged,” that would be a “game-changer in reaching out to the people especially women in the remote & unreached areas.”

For Rs 45,000 crore partial credit guarantee scheme 2.0 for NBFCs, HFCs and MFIs to offer fresh lending to small businesses and individuals, the ministry said that banks have approved the purchase of a portfolio of Rs 25,055.5 crore as on August 28. The approval or negotiations for another Rs 4,367 crore is in process. Similarly, for Rs 30,000 crore special liquidity scheme for NBFCs, HFCs, MFIs, the government had assigned investment bank and project advisor SBI Capital Markets (SBICAP) to set up a special purpose vehicle to implement the scheme that was launched on July 1, 2020. 37 proposals involving Rs 10,590 crore were approved as on September 11 while six proposals seeking capital of Rs 783.5 crore are going through the approval process.

Among the biggest schemes announced by PM Modi under the stimulus package was Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme for businesses including MSMEs to help recover from the Covid impact. As on September 10, 2020, public and private banks along with NBFCs have been sanctioned Rs 1,63,226.49 crore to 42,01,576 borrowers out of which Rs 1,18,138.64 crore has been disbursed to 25,01,999 businesses. The scheme offers a credit of 20 per cent of the outstanding credit to MSMEs as on February 29, 2020, with up to Rs 25 crore outstanding and turnover of up to Rs 100 crore.

According to the Ministry of Finance, income tax refunds of more than Rs 1,01,308 crore have been issued to over 27.55 lakh taxpayers during April 1 — September 8 period while corporate tax refunds of Rs 70,540 crore have been issued in 1,71,155 cases. “In fact, all corporate tax refunds up to Rs 50 crore have been issued in all cases, wherever due. Other Refunds are under process,” the ministry added.