PM SVANidhi program: overwhelming response! Modi government’s Atma Nirbhar loan project gets green light from street vendors
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the Modi government is implementing the AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) program of PM street vendors to facilitate unsecured working capital loan to 50 lakh street vendors to restart their businesses after the COVID-19 closures. And, the program received an overwhelming response from street vendors.
Over 15 lakh loan applications have been received so far under PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) program. Of these, over 5.5 lakh loans were sanctioned and about 2 lakh loans disbursed.
In order to speed up the loan sanctioning process and facilitate the use of lenders, it was decided to forward requests directly to bank branches, which have been designated by the seller as “Preferred Lender” OR where the seller has a savings bank account in case “Preferred lender” is not indicated. This process is expected to increase the number of sanctioned loans and significantly reduce the loan disbursement time.
Software was developed to facilitate the above-mentioned process, which was made operational on September 11, 2020. Approximately 3 lakh applications would be pushed to banks using this software. From now on, requests would be pushed to Preferred Lenders on a daily basis and for those for which no Preferred Lender is indicated, on a weekly basis.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said, “These measures are expected to accelerate the implementation of the PM SVANidhi program by credit institutions by enabling street vendors to access the benefits of the program and become Aatma Nirbhar.
The SVANidhi program facilitates the loan of working capital of up to Rs 10,000 to street vendors. As part of this program, regular repayment receives special incentives and digital transactions are rewarded. The program is available to all street vendors in urban areas who were selling products by March 24, 2020. Eligible vendors will be identified based on criteria including possession of a sales certificate or identity card. issued by local urban organizations. Sellers who have left for their home country due to covid 19 lockdown will be eligible for the loan upon their return.
In accordance with the SVANidhi program, urban street vendors will be able to benefit from a working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 with an occupation period of one year and be reimbursed in monthly installments. For this loan, no guarantee will be taken by the lending institutions.
In the event of early or early repayment, sellers will be eligible for the next working capital loan cycle with an improved limit. No prepayment penalty will be charged by sellers for reimbursement before the scheduled date.
Sellers, benefiting from a loan under the program, are eligible for an interest subsidy of 7%. The amount of the interest subsidy will be credited quarterly to the borrower’s account. Lenders will submit quarterly interest subsidy requests for the quarters ending June 30, September 30, December 31 and March 31 of each fiscal year.
Integrated suppliers would be encouraged to benefit from a monthly cashback of the order of Rs 50 to Rs 100 for digital transactions. Regular commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), small financial banks (SFBs), cooperative banks, non-bank financial corporations (NBFC), microfinance institutions (MFIs) and SHG banks can grant a grant. credit assistance under this program.
