Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget 2024 speech on Thursday highlighted that 43 crore Mudra loans amounting to Rs 22.5 crore involving 30 crore loans to women entrepreneurs have been deployed. “PM Mudra Yojana has sanctioned 43 crore loans amounting to Rs. 22.5 lakh crore for the entrepreneurial aspirations of our youth. Fund of Funds, Startup India and Startup Credit Guarantee Schemes are assisting our youth,” said Sitharaman.
As of March 2023, 6.23 crore loans amounting to Rs 4.56 lakh crore were sanctioned of which Rs 4.50 lakh crore were disbursed, as per data from the Mudra portal.
As of January 26, 2024, in the current fiscal, 4.9 crore loans involving Rs 3.90 lakh crore were sanctioned of which Rs 3.83 lakh crore were disbursed.
In terms of asset quality, the total non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of credit disbursed under the Mudra scheme as of June 2023 stood at 2.68 per cent, according to the data shared by Bhagwat Karad, Minister of State in the finance ministry in the Rajya Sabha on December 19.
As of March 31, 2023, the NPA level stood at 2.62 per cent, down from 3.17 per cent as of March 2022. NPAs are advances or loans that are overdue for more than 90 days.
Mudra scheme was launched in 2015 to refinance last-mile financiers who lend to micro and small businesses in manufacturing, trading and services activities as well as agri-allied activities. The scheme offers credit across three stages — Shishu, Kishor, and Tarun with financial limits up to Rs 50,000; Rs 50,00 to Rs 5 lakh; and Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh respectively.
Meanwhile, banks had invested Rs 23.36 lakh crore under priority sector lending in MSMEs in November 2023, up 21.9 per cent from Rs 19.16 lakh crore deployed in November 2022, showed latest data on sectoral deployment of bank credit by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In October 2023, Rs 23.15 lakh crore was deployed in MSMEs under priority sector lending.
Rs 23.36 lakh crore deployed during November was 14.9 per cent of Rs 155 lakh crore non-food credit deployed by banks during the month vis-a-vis 14.8 per cent of Rs 128 lakh crore non-food credit in November 2022.