At 10th rank, Andhra Pradesh lags in Mudra loan disbursal

VIJAYAWADA: Even after two years of its introduction, large number of eligible people in Andhra Pradesh are bereft of the benefits from Mudra scheme. The number of the beneficiaries who had availed loans under the scheme are less compared to other States.

The State government admits that AP is lagging behind when it comes to Mudra scheme and blames it on the non-cooperation of bankers.  However, bankers disagree and say there are less takers for Mudra loans. As per the statistics available with the government, Andhra Pradesh ranks 10th in implementation of Mudra scheme, while  Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar and Karnataka occupy the first four places.
During the financial year 2016-17,  Rs 1,88,528 crore was sanctioned and Rs 1,75,312 crore worth loans were issued across the country. Andhra Pradesh was only able to sanction a meagre Rs 6,078 crore, of which only Rs 5,731 crore worth loans were issued.  

For loans under Shishu scheme, Rs 1,013 crore was sanctioned out of which Rs 964 crore was distributed; for Kishore scheme,  Rs 3,571 crore was sanctioned and Rs  3,314 crore was distributed and for Tarun scheme,  Rs 1,493 crore was sanctioned while only Rs 1,452 crore was distributed.

The Mudra or Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Bank, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 8, 2015 with a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore and a credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crore, to provide loans for micro businesses.

Three types of loans -- Shishu, Kishore and Tarun -- were launched under Mudra scheme.  Shishu covers loans up to Rs 50,000, Kishore covers loans above Rs 50,000 and up to Rs 5 lakh and Tarun covers loans above Rs 5 lakh and up to Rs 10 lakh. The schemes are confined to land transport, community, social and personal services, food and textile product sectors.

State-level banking committee convener GSV Krishna Rao said that all the banks are offering loans to the youth and women as part of the Mudra Stand Up India programme, but people are not coming forward to take loans.

He also added that since many people are not availing Mudra loans in Andhra Pradesh, it is better to have consultants in banks to increase awareness about Mudra loans.

Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao questioned why the banks are not issuing loans to farmers under Shishu and Kishore schemes. “Why are they not considering farmers as eligible under Mudra scheme,” he asked. He said it is the duty of the ban kers to identify the real beneficiaries and extend loans instead of waiting for them to come to them. Meanwhile, the State government stressed the need for better coordination between bankers and officials to ensure people benefit from Mudra scheme. It wants the State to be one among top three States in implementation of the scheme by 2020.

On the other hand, the Central government has decided to add AP in the list of the States where campaigns regarding Mudra awareness need to be intensified.