Centre in RS lists steps taken to improve flow of credit to MSME sector

Union Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad has said that the Centre has announced Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme as part of the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package with the objective to help MSMEs and business enterprises to meet their operational liabilities and resume business in view of the distress caused by the COVID-19 crisis by providing Lending Institutions 100 per cent guarantee against any losses suffered by them due to non-repayment by borrowers.

The Minister was giving a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) to deduct the amount equivalent to credit disbursed to New MSMEs, who have not availed any credit facilities from the banking system as on January 1, 2021, from their Net Demand and Time Liabilities (NDTL) for calculation of the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR).

"The Minister stated that this exemption is available upto Rs 25 lakh per borrower, disbursed upto a fortnight ending December 31, 2021, for a period of one year from the date of origination of the loan or the tenure of the loan, whichever is earlier," it said.

"RBI operationalized TReDS in 2017 to solve the problem of delayed payments to MSMEs. TReDS is an electronic platform where receivables of MSMEs drawn against buyers (large corporates, PSUs, Government Departments, etc.) are financed through multiple financiers at competitive rates through an auction mechanism. As on December 3, 2021, 26.64 lakh invoices amounting to Rs 56,694.14 crore have been discounted since inception by the three entities on the TReDS platform," the statement said.

The subordinate Debt scheme for Stressed MSMEs was approved on June 1, 2020. Under the scheme, banks provide promoters of stressed MSMEs with subordinate debt up to 15% of the promoter's stake or Rs. 75 lakh, whichever is lower to be infused as equity/quasi-equity in the business.

In view of the need to support the viable MSME entities on account of the fallout of COVID-19, it was decided to extend the facility for restructuring existing loans to MSMEs up to 50 crore classified as 'standard' without a downgrade in the asset classification subject to the conditions issued vide circular, dated May 5, 2021, and June 4, 2021, on 'Resolution Framework 2.0.

For better transmission of monetary policy, RBI has advised banks to link all new floating rate loans to external benchmarks for MSEs from October 1, 2019, and Medium enterprises from April 1, 2020.

"The Regulatory Retail Portfolio threshold to a single counterparty was increased from 5 crore to 7.5 crore enabling Banks to assign a lower risk weight of 75 per cent to such exposure to MSME entities," the statement said.