MSME credit by scheduled commercial banks under priority sector lending in July stood at Rs 25.10 lakh crore, growing by 15 per cent from Rs 21.82 lakh crore deployed during the year-ago period, according to the latest data on sectoral credit deployment by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.
Priority credit to MSMEs in July was 14.9 per cent of India’s non-food credit of Rs 167 lakh crore during the month. In July last year, the share was 15.9 per cent.
Among MSMEs, credit to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in July grew by 14.3 per cent to Rs 19.9 lakh crore from Rs 17.4 lakh crore in July last year. Similarly, credit to medium units jumped by 17.9 per cent to Rs 5.11 lakh crore last month in comparison to Rs 4.34 lakh crore deployed in July last year.
Importantly, to boost credit access for MSMEs, the government is looking at establishing a separate bank for direct lending to the units, FE had reported in June this year.
The RBI’s new upcoming digital platform also aims to enhance MSME lending. The central bank’s Governor on August 26 at an event had said that the new Unified Lending Interface (ULI) platform for enabling frictionless credit will be launched in due course and would cater to the large unmet demand for credit across various sectors, particularly for agricultural and MSME borrowers.
The new platform will “facilitate the seamless and consent-based flow of digital information, including even land records of various states, from multiple data service providers to lenders. This cuts down the time taken for credit appraisal, especially for smaller and rural borrowers,” the Governor said.