Credit and finance for MSMEs: The government’s micro credit scheme Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana has sanctioned over 16.67 crore loans involving Rs 9.98 lakh crore in the last three financial years (FY20-FY22), said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. Out of the total loans sanctioned, 68 per cent or 11.08 crore loans were sanctioned to women borrowers while in terms of the sanctioned amount, 44 per cent or Rs. 4.42 lakh crore out of the total amount was extended to women entrepreneurs in three years.

The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 to provide institutional credit of up to Rs 10 lakh to micro and small business for income-generating activities in the manufacturing, trading, and services sector and also for activities allied to agriculture. 

Also read: Mudra scheme: 2.19 cr loans sanctioned in H1 FY23, up 8% from year ago, shows govt data

Overall, since the inception of the scheme till November 25, 2022, out of 37.76 crore loans, 68 per cent or over 25.84 crore loans have been extended to women borrowers under the Mudra scheme, Minister of State for finance Bhagwat Karad had informed Parliament on December 12. 

Year-wise, out of 6.22 crore loans in FY20, 3.91 crore were to women MSMEs. In comparison, out of 5.07 crore loans in FY21, 3.33 crore were to women borrowers and in FY22, 3.84 crore loans were to women borrowers out of total 5.37 crore loans. In the current financial year, as of November 25, 2.82 crore loans were sanctioned, of which 2.01 crore were to women MSMEs. 

Also read: Mudra NPAs moderate in FY22, though still above pre-Covid levels

The growth in Mudra sanctions has come amid a marginal dip in the non-performing asset (NPA) levels for credit disbursed under the Mudra scheme in FY22. Based on the provisional data as of March 31, 2022, shared by Karad in Parliament in July this year, NPAs as a cumulative percentage of total Mudra loans disbursed in FY22 decreased to 3.17 per cent from 3.61 per cent in FY21 though still above pre-Covid 2.53 per cent in FY20.

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