Lok Sabha Gets an Update on Credit Related Support to MSMEs

A comprehensive set of information, regarding banking and credit-related support rendered to MSMEs, was given by Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

He mentioned, as reported by Reserve Bank of India, the Scheduled Commercial Banks have outstanding credit of Rs.15,10,650.52 crore to 320.68 lakh MSMEs in the year ending March 2019. In order to offer the right products and funding at the right time and help the MSMEs to grow, the Government has taken various initiatives specifically to ease access to finance. These include Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme, Credit Guarantee Scheme, Interest Subvention Scheme, 59 minutes loan portal etc. These initiatives are aimed at providing margin money subsidies, collateral-free loans, cost-effective and faster availability of credit. The aforesaid schemes are also implemented to assist the MSMEs in economically backward areas including Bundelkhand.

The Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGS) was launched by the Government of India (GoI) to make available collateral-free credit to the micro and small enterprise sector. Both the existing and the new enterprises are eligible to be covered under the scheme. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, GoI and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), established a Trust named Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) to implement the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises. The scheme was formally launched on August 30, 2000. The corpus of CGTMSE is being contributed by the GoI and SIDBI in the ratio of 4:1 respectively and has contributed Rs. 2477.78 crore to the corpus of the Trust up to May 31, 2016. As announced in the Package for MSEs, the corpus was to be raised to Rs.2500 crore by the end of 11th Plan.