Centre announces Rs 1.1 lakh crore loan guarantee scheme for Covid affected sectors

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced Rs 1.1 lakh crore loan guarantee scheme to boost growth in sectors impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Announcing a fresh set of relief measures, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the scheme will will enable the medical infrastructure and health sector to raise loans at a lower interest rate of 8 per cent to 8.25 per cent a year.
Of these Rs 1.1 lakh crore, Rs 50,000 crore has been allocated to the health sector and Rs 60,000 crore for other sectors.
"We are announcing about eight economic relief measures, of which four are absolutely new and one is specific to health infrastructure. For Covid-affected areas, Rs 1.1 lakh crore credit guarantee scheme and Rs 50,000 crore for health sector," Sitharaman said.
Under this, maximum loan amount for healthcare sector will be Rs 100 crore with interest cap of 7.95 per cent. While, for other sectors the interest rate has been capped at 8.25 per cent.
The scheme will cover cost of expansion and new projects related to health and medical infrastructure in cities other than the eight metropolitan cities.
Centre will provide guarantee coverage amounting to 50 per cent for expansion and 75 per cent for new proejects.
Apart from this, an additional Rs 1.5 lakh crore under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) has been announced. This is additional to the Rs 3 lakh crore announced under the scheme last year.