Banks sanction loans of Rs 1.6 trn to 4.2 mn MSMEs under ECLGS scheme

The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-trillion Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in May

The finance ministry on Sunday said banks have sanctioned loans worth over Rs 1.63 trillion to more than 4.2 million business units under the Rs 3-trillion Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector.

On the disbursement front, however, over Rs 1.18 trillion doled out to 2.5 million MSME units, till September 10, which were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns.

The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-trillion Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in May to mitigate the distress by providing credit to different sectors, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

As of September 10, as reported by public sector banks (PSBs) and top 23 private sector banks, "additional credit amounting to Rs 1,63,226.49 crore has been sanctioned to 42,01,576 borrowers", the ministry said in a statement.

"Amount of Rs 1,18,138.64 crore has been disbursed to 25,01,999 borrowers," it said while sharing the progress of implementation of various schemes under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package.

Sharing details of other schemes being implemented by the finance ministry, the statement said banks have approved purchase of portfolio of Rs 25,055.5 crore under Rs 45,000-crore Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 2.0 for NBFCs, HFCs and MFIs to do fresh lending to MSMEs and individuals scheme as on August 28.

Lenders are currently in the process of approval/negotiations for additional Rs 4,367 crore, it said.

Talking about income tax refunds, it said the department has issued Rs 1,01,308 crore to more than 27.55 lakh taxpayers between April 1, 2020 and September 8, 2020.

"Income tax refunds of Rs 30,768 crore have been issued in 25,83,507 cases and 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," it said.

With regard to Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for the stressed non-banking financial companies (NBFCs)/housing finance companies (HFCs)/micro finance institutions (MFIs), it said 37 proposals involving an amount of Rs 10,590 crore have been approved while six applications seeking financing of Rs 783.5 crore are under process as on September 11.

It further said under the Rs 30,000 crore additional Emergency Working Capital Funding for farmers through NABARD scheme, Rs 25,000 crore has been disbursed till August 28.

"Balance amount of Rs 5,000 crore under Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) allocated to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) by RBI for smaller NBFCs and NBFC-MFIs. NABARD is finalising operational guidelines to roll it out soon," it said.

Besides, NABARD has also launched Structured Finance and Partial Guarantee scheme in collaboration with two agencies and banks to help unrated NBFCs/MFIs to get credit from lenders, the statement said.

On May 20, the Cabinet approved additional funding of up to Rs 3 trillion 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 trillion 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 trillion is sanctioned under GECL, whichever is earlier.