The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have hailed the Government’s decision to raise the ceiling limit – both – liability and turnover – for availing the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee scheme (ECLGS).

“The enhancement is expected to expand the ambit of the ECLGS to cover many more exporters,” said A Sakthivel, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council.

Soon after the announcement of the scheme in mid-May, a good number of MSMEs had said that the additional funding of Rs 3-lakh-crore would be insufficient, as there were thousands of micro units in the country. But as on July 29, the sum sanctioned by member lending institutions stood at ₹1,36,155 crore of which ₹87,277 crore had been disbursed.

Taking into account the headroom available under the scheme and after consultation with the stakeholders, the government has decided to include individual loans given for business purpose within the ambit of ECLGS (subject to fulfilling the eligibility criteria), increasing the earlier liability ceiling from ₹25 crore to ₹50 crore and annual turnover from ₹100 crore to ₹250 crore.

The AEPC Chairman, while thanking the RBI and the Finance Minister for considering the Council plea, sought a further increase in the liability limit up to ₹100 crore and removal of the turnover limit as under the new classification export turnover would not be counted for MSMEs