State Bank of India (SBI), on Tuesday, said it has sanctioned credit under the Guaranteed Emergency Credit Line Loan (GECL) aggregating to ₹15,000 crore to 1.5 lakh MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprise) and business enterprises.
SBI said in a statement it has so far disbursed loans worth ₹8,700 crore under GECL.
According to the statement, additional supportive measures such as Covid Emergency Credit Line, re-assessment of working capital limits, and restructuring of advances are also being made available to MSME customers.
Under GECL, a fund based working capital term loan of up to 20 per cent of the entire fund based outstanding as on February 29 is sanctioned to eligible borrowers. The loan amount maximum is capped at ₹5 crore. All borrower accounts (BEs/ MSMEs) with combined outstanding loans of up to ₹25 crore as on February 29and annual turnover of up to ₹100 crore in the previous financial year (FY20) are eligible for GECL funding under the scheme.
The maximum tenor of GECL is four years from the date of disbursement. While it comes with a moratorium of 12 months for principal, interest is payable at monthly intervals. The principal has to be repaid in 36 equal instalments after the moratorium period is over. The interest rate on this loan ranges from 7.80 per cent to 9.25 per cent.
Townhall with MSMEs
To empower MSMEs in the wake of the Covid crisis, SBI said it has organised more than 125 virtual town hall meetings from May to date.
As per the directives of the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, the bank conducted circle-level meetings to reach out to MSME customers and explain the various relief measures and financial support provided to them to fight the Covid outbreak, the statement said. These meetings witnessed participants of around 3,000 MSME customers.
CS Setty, MD (Retail and Digital Banking), SBI said: “MSME being the priority sector of the Indian economy, it was important to hold these meetings to understand the concerns and handhold our customers amid the lockdown and provide them with the much needed financial aid.
“..We, along with the help of our employees, are continuously focussing on supporting MSMEs in these unprecedented times.”
A letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.
Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.
In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.
We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.
But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.
I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.
A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!
Support Quality Journalism