Digital MSME loans: Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has launched its PNB GST Sahay App for MSME borrowers to access loans digitally using GST invoices. “PNB becomes the first public sector bank to integrate GST Sahay App to offer digital credit to micro, small and medium-sized businesses based on GST profile,” the bank announced.
The app enables an end-to-end digital lending process to help eliminate any manual intervention for MSMEs and make the process cost-effective and smooth. PNB said this will directly credit the loan amount into the borrower’s current account maintained with the bank.
“With the help of technology, several issues of assessment, market report, and appraisal concerns can now be answered in a few clicks, thereby eliminating any bottlenecks. We, at PNB, too are working towards digitising our credit journey to the maximum possible extent by employing the latest available technological advancement. Our bank has been a pioneer in serving the top industrialists as well as serving the masses and providing small loans to the non-corporate/farm and non-farm to MSMEs,” said Atul Kumar Goel, MD & CEO, PNB.
Through the app, all GST-registered MSMEs having an active account with PNB will be able to access the bank’s GST Sahay service for loans starting from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2 lakh per invoice, subject to capping of Rs 10 lakh per borrower. The solution will also allow borrowers a one-time hassle-free repayment process with the option of pre-payment.
Importantly, PNB is among the top MSME lenders in the country. As of March 2023, PNB led the tally of 12 public sector banks with the maximum number of collateral-free MSME loans up to Rs 10 lakh and Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh, FE Aspire had reported.
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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 earlier this month, PNB reported 18 lakh collateral-free MSME 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.
Likewise, in the Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh collateral-free MSME loan segment, PNB had 1.07 lakh loans involving Rs 13,247 crore outstanding as of March 2023 followed by Bank of Maharashtra with 82,389 loans involving Rs 11,206 crore and Union Bank of India with 72,296 loans amounting to Rs 18,570 crore.