Public sector banks (PSBs) approved loans worth Rs 6.45 lakh crore between March 1 and May 15 to various sectors, including small and medium scale industries (MSME), agriculture and retail, amid the Corona virus crisis. These banks had approved a loan of Rs 5.95 lakh crore till May 8. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a tweet, “Between March 1 and May 15, PSB sanctioned more than Rs 6.45 lakh crore loan. Of these, 54.96 lakh accounts are from MSME, agriculture and retail sectors. There has been a significant increase in lending, as on May 8, the figure was Rs 5.95 lakh crore.
Loans worth over Rs 6.45 lakh crore were sanctioned by PSBs during March 1 – May 15 for 54.96 lakh accounts from MSME, Retail, Agriculture & Corporate sectors; A notable increase compared to the Rs 5.95 lakh crore sanctioned as of May 8. @FinMinIndia @RBI @DFS_India @PIB_India
– NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) May 19, 2020
“Public sector banks sanctioned more than Rs 1.03 lakh crore as emergency loans and increase in working capital from March 20 to May 15,” he said. Public sector banks launched an emergency lending arrangement to fund their existing MSMEs and corporate borrowers in the last week of March, immediately after the lockdown was announced. Under this scheme, banks provide 10 per cent of the existing corpus based on working capital limit in the form of additional loan, which has a maximum limit of Rs 200 crore.