Banks disbursed over Rs 81.7k cr at loan mela: FinMin

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday met heads of public sector banks (PSBs). Addressing the media after the meet, Sitharaman said that the Corporate Affairs Ministry has a complete list of companies which stated that they owe MSMEs nearly Rs 40,000 crores.

Sitharaman said that the banks shall make an attempt to approach all of these MSMEs and ask them if want a bill discounting because that is openly claimed by the companies. By 22nd I have asked them to report back saying if the MSMEs are willing to have the bill discounted & collect the money.

Secretary Corporate Affairs & Secretary banking will ensure that the data, in desegregated form, is given to these banks, she said.

The Finance Ministry osaid loans worth Rs 81,781 crore were disbursed during the nine-day outreach programme or loan mela organised by banks that began on October 1.

Finance Secretary Rajeev Kumar said "Rs 81,781 crore was disbursed in the outreach programme. Of these, new loans accounted for Rs 34,342 crore."

The Centre in August issued guidelines on operationalising Rs 1 lakh crore partial guarantee scheme under which PSBs can purchase high-rated pooled assets of financially sound non-banking finance companies (NBFCs).

NBFCs, including housing finance companies (HFCs), came under stress following a series of defaults by the group companies of IL&FS in September last year.

(With inputs from PTI)