Credit and finance for MSMEs: SIDBI’s 59-minute loan approval scheme PSB Loans in 59 Minutes for MSMEs sanctioned 2,42,812 loans involving Rs 82,822 crores as of September 30, 2022, vis-a-vis 2,34,905 loans involving Rs 78,409 crores sanctioned as of September 30, 2021, registering a year-on-year increase of only 3.36 per cent, official data indicated. Out of the total loans sanctioned, 2,25,015 loans involving Rs 66,922 crores were disbursed till September end, up 2.75 per cent from 2,18,977 applications involving Rs 64,067 crores disbursed till September 2021, data from MSME Dashboard by Ministry of MSME revealed.

Importantly, the rate of growth in loans sanctioned and disbursed under the scheme has in fact dropped from the corresponding period in 2020. FE Aspire had last year reported that a 10 per cent growth in loans sanctioned was recorded as of September 30, 2021, from 2,12,091 loan applications involving Rs 66,991 crore sanctioned till August 31, 2020. Similarly, growth in loans disbursed till September last year was 11 per cent from 1,96,473 loan applications involving Rs 54,545 crores disbursed till August end in the previous year.

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However, fintech platform Online PSB Loans (OPL), which operates the scheme, is likely to hit the Rs 1 lakh crore mark in disbursements this fiscal, its Managing Director and CEO Jinand Shah told FE Aspire in July this year. According to Shah, 50 per cent growth will come amid the credit season that begins in September and goes up to March for MSMEs. The scheme offers MSMEs to get in-principle approval for a business loan of a minimum of Rs 10 lakh and a maximum of Rs 5 crore at interest rates starting from 8.5 per cent per annum, according to its guidelines on the portal.

Meanwhile, the bank credit deployed to the MSME sector in August stood at Rs 18.15 lakh crore, up 24 per cent from Rs 14.64 lakh crore in August 2021. In July Rs 18.08 lakh crore was deployed while during April, May, and June in the current financial year, credit deployed to MSMEs stood at Rs 17.63 lakh crore, Rs 17.81 lakh crore, and Rs 17.93 lakh crore respectively, according to the data from the Reserve Bank of India.

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