Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked the Private Sector Lenders and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), to join Public Sector Banks in offering lending assistance to small businesses.
She has urged private sector banks including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Yes and Kotak Mahindra Bank, and NBFCs namely Edelweiss and Tata Motors Finance Solutions.
On Monday, while addressing a video conference, she asked the private lenders and NBFCs to implement the recently announced emergency credit guarantee lending scheme (ECGLS) and help small businesses.
Also Read: FM Sitharaman reviews progress of credit guarantee scheme for MSME
The scheme is likely to help small biz pay salaries, rent, and meet restocking costs.
The finance minister told the participants of the video conference that they will have to offer assistance to the SMEs and share the responsibility with the public sector banks that are already disbursing loans to small businesses.
The centre is urging the lenders to increase the credit disbursal to support small companies bearing the loss of business and a severe liquidity crisis due to the extended nationwide lockdown for curbing the spread of deadly coronavirus.
As a matter of fact, India had already surpassed 3 Lakh cases of Covid-19 lately and more the 9,000 people have lost their lives due to the infection.
