Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

PM SVANidhi to Continue till December 2024: CCEA

The scheme has been extended as the circumstances that led to the launch of the scheme in June 2020, i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on small businesses, have not fully retracted, said the official statement.
April 28, 2022
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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 27 approved the continuation of lending under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) beyond March 2022 till December 2024. The focus will be on greater collateral free affordable loan corpus, better adoption of digital transactions and holistic socio-economic development of the street vendors and their families.

Through PM SVANidhi, affordable collateral-free loans are given to street vendors. The scheme had envisioned to facilitate loans for an amount of ₹5,000 crore. The latest approval has revised the loan amount to ₹8,100 crore, thereby providing the street vendors working capital to further expand their business and making them self-reliant.

The budget for promotion of digital payments, including cashback to the vendors has also been increased. CCEA’s approval on Wednesday is expected to benefit nearly 1.2 crore citizens of urban India.

As on April 25, 2022, 31.9 lakh loans have been sanctioned and 29.6 lakh loans amounting to ₹2,931 crore have been disbursed under PM SVANidhi. As regards second loan, 2.3 lakh loans have been sanctioned and 1.9 lakh loans amounting to ₹385 crore have been disbursed. The beneficiary street vendors have conducted more than 13.5 crore digital transactions and have been given a cashback of ₹10 crore. An amount of ₹51 crore has been paid as interest subsidy.

The scheme has been extended as the circumstances that led to the launch of the scheme in June 2020, i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on small businesses, have not fully retracted, said the official statement.

The extension of lending till December 2024 will assist in institutionalising the access to formal credit channels, giving an assured source of credit to help them plan their business expansion, increasing the adoption of digital transactions, reducing the impact of potential NPAs on the lending institutions and helping in holistic socio-economic uplift of the street vendors and their families.