MSME credit scheme scope expanded to include professionals like Chartered Accountant, Doctor, lawyers etc.

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The government on Saturday widened the scope of the Rs 3 lakh crore MSME credit guarantee scheme by doubling the upper ceiling of loans outstanding to Rs 50 crore and including certain individual loans given to professionals like doctors, lawyers and chartered accountants for business purposes under its ambit. The tweaking of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) was done based on demand from trade bodies and in line with new MSME definition approved by the Union Cabinet in June.

“We have also decided to cover individual loans given to doctors, chartered accountants for business purposes under the scheme,” Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda said.

Similar procedure as with regard to companies would be adopted to sanction loans to these professionals running their business, he said.

To include more companies to take benefit of the scheme, he said, it has been decided to increase the upper ceiling of loans outstanding as on February 29 for being eligible under the scheme from Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore.

The maximum amount of guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) funding under the scheme would also correspondingly increase from Rs 5 crore at present to Rs 10 crore, he said.

“Smaller companies were sufficiently covered under the scheme, so we wanted to include larger companies as well,” Panda said.

The overall ceiling for the scheme remains at Rs 3 lakh crore and the validity of the scheme is till October, he added.

All MSME borrower accounts with an outstanding credit of up to Rs 50 crore as on February 29, which were less than or equal to 60 days past due as on that date, i.e., regular, SMA-0 and SMA-1 accounts, and with an annual turnover of up to Rs 250 crore, are eligible for GECL funding under the scheme.

Source: Economic Times.

It would be interesting to see that on ground level how many people receive the benefit of this scheme. Do comment below if you had applied for the scheme and got the benefit.

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