Credit and finance for MSMEs: Retail and wholesale trade in the country secured Rs 7.77 lakh crore in gross bank credit in January this year, growing year-on-year (YoY) by 16.8 per cent from Rs 6.65 lakh crore raised in January 2022, as per the latest data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on bank credit deployment to various sectors. In contrast, the YoY credit growth to retail and wholesale trade in December 2022 stood at 13.7 per cent to Rs 7.68 lakh crore from 14.7 per cent during December 2021 at Rs 6.75 lakh crore.
While retail traders were deployed Rs 3.96 lakh crore in bank credit in January, up 21.8 per cent from Rs 3.25 lakh crore deployed in January 2021, wholesale traders (other than in food procurement) raised Rs 3.81 lakh crore in January vis-a-vis Rs 3.40 lakh crore raised in January 2022. The overall amount deployed to both wholesale and retail trade was 5.8 per cent of Rs 133.41 lakh crore total bank credit deployed across sectors.
Also read: Retailers, wholesalers top MSME registrations on Udyam portal: Govt data
The credit deployed to wholesale and retail traders assumed significance as the government intends to bring more such enterprises into the formal economic fold. In fact, as of February 2, 2023, out of around 1.38 crore Udyam-registered MSMEs, the top 10 categories or segments contributed for 96.47 lakh registrations, of which 19.7 lakh – maximum registrations – were of retail traders, according to the data shared by the minister of state in the MSME ministry Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha last month. The second highest number of registrations were of wholesale traders — 12.3 lakh except those dealing with motor vehicles and motorcycles.
Also read: Retailers, wholesalers top MSME registrations on Udyam portal: Govt data
Among other segments under services raising the highest bank credit in January this year were non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) deployed Rs 12.87 lakh crore, commercial real estate (Rs 3.13 lakh crore), transport operators (Rs 1.66 lakh crore), professional services (Rs 1.27 lakh crore), tourism, hotels & restaurants (Rs 64,909 crore), aviation (Rs 27,824 crore), computer software (Rs 21,071 crore), and shipping (Rs 7,259 crore), according to the RBI