State Bank of India will restructure over 41,000 accounts of Small and Micro Enterprises (SME) which are hit by economic downturn.
In December 2008 Reserve Bank of India had announced a package to support SMEs to deal with financing problems relating to cash-flow and drop in demand leading to piling up of inventory. Banks have reduced the lending rates, rescheduled payments and raised working capital limits for these units.
Country’s largest lender has already restructured 26,000 accounts. Large number of restructured accounts belongs to auto component and garment sector, its chief general manager B S Bhasin told reporters today.
At present, SBI handles eight lakh SME accounts having outstanding loan portfolio of Rs 1,00,000 crore. It has revised the disbursement estimate for 2008-09 downward to Rs 22,000 crore from original target of Rs 25,000 crore. Last year it disbursed Rs 17,000 crore.
