Bank credit to MSMEs: The gross bank credit deployed in July 2023 to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) under priority sector lending by scheduled commercial banks grew 16.9 per cent in comparison to 17.8 per cent growth during July last year. According to the latest sectoral deployment data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), banks deployed Rs 16.78 lakh crore to MSEs in June in comparison to Rs 14.36 lakh crore in June 2022. In June 2021, Rs 12.19 lakh crore was deployed.
The disbursement in medium enterprises recorded 10.9 per cent growth in July vis-a-vis 38.3 per cent growth in July last year. Banks deployed Rs 4.07 lakh crore to medium units in July while Rs 3.67 lakh crore was deployed in July last year and Rs 2.65 lakh crore in July 2021.
Also read: FM Nirmala Sitharaman asks banks to increase rural branches around MSME clusters
Overall, Rs 20.86 lakh crore bank credit under priority sector lending — 14.1 per cent of India’s total non-food bank credit worth Rs 147.8 lakh crore — was deployed in the MSME sector in July this year against Rs 21.14 lakh crore deployed in June. In July 2022, Rs 18.03 lakh crore – 14.6 per cent of non-food bank credit worth Rs 123.3 lakh crore — was deployed in the MSME sector.
In FY23, Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Maharashtra and Union Bank of India were the top MSME lenders deploying the maximum number of collateral-free MSME loans up to Rs 10 lakh and Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh as of March 2023, FE Aspire had reported.
According to the data shared by Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Minister of State in the MSME Ministry in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, PNB led the tally of 12 PSBs with 18 lakh loans amounting to Rs 27,124 crore followed by 15.20 lakh loans involving Rs 22,783 crore by Bank of Maharashtra and 14.64 lakh loans involving Rs 20,351 crore by Union Bank of India as of March 2023 under the up to Rs 10 lakh collateral-free loan category.
To increase credit penetration in rural areas, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on August 31 asked banks to map regional rural banks (RRBs) with MSME clusters and also put greater thrust on increasing the network of rural branches in cluster areas identified by the MSME Ministry.