Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), which operates the credit guarantee scheme of collateral-free loans to micro and small enterprises (MSEs), has approved Rs 1 lakh crore guarantees in 172 days as of September 19, 2024.
Sharing the update on Monday in a post on X, CGTMSE said the Rs 1-lakh-crore-guarantee mark was achieved in 219 days in FY24 and 359 days in FY23.
“Yet again…..CGTMSE breaks its own record. #CGTMSE has achieved a significant #milestone by approving #credit guarantees worth ₹1 Lakh Crore as of September 19, 2024 in just 172 days, reflecting #operational improvements and growing #trust of lenders and MSEs,” the post read.
In FY24, the scheme had approved Rs 2 lakh crore guarantees, the highest ever in a single FY in comparison to Rs 1.04 lakh crore in FY23 across 11.65 lakh guarantees and Rs 56,172 crore across 7.17 lakh guarantees in FY22.
The scheme provides up to 85 per cent guarantee cover for loans up to Rs 5 lakh by eligible MSEs, up to 75 per cent for loans between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 5 crore.
To boost women beneficiaries, the MSME Ministry last month said women-owned MSEs will get higher credit guarantee coverage of 90 per cent under the CGTMSE scheme.
“27 lakh women-led MSMEs are expected to benefit from this initiative,” MSME Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had said in a statement.
Importantly, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget 2023 speech had also announced an infusion of Rs 9,000 crore in the CGTMSE corpus to enable additional collateral-free credit of Rs 2 lakh crore to MSMEs and to reduce the cost of credit by 1 per cent.