Banks to give loans worth ₹11,168 crore: FM

Banks have sanctioned loans of ₹11,168 crore to about 2 lakh borrowers under the credit outreach programme, FM Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Under this, banks have been holding special camps to sanction loans to eligible borrowers.

Most of the banks have announced festival offers at concessional rates of interest and waived processing charges.

“During her review of PSBs in Aug, Smt @nsitharaman had exhorted banks to conduct credit Outreach Programme in Oct to sup port revival of economic growth. In line with this, banks have been holding district-wise & sector-wise loan outreach programmes,” a tweet by the FM’s office said.

The loans under the Credit Outreach Programme are over and above those sanctioned and disbursed under the various central government loan guarantee schemes, it added.

As per the data shared by the Finance Ministry, as much as ₹6,268 crore business loans were sanctioned to about 1 lakh beneficiaries, while vehicle loans worth ₹448 crore were sanctioned to 5,058 borrowers.

Housing loans worth ₹762 crore were sanctioned to 3,401 borrowers as of October 20, 2021, it said.

Similar outreach programmes were held between October 2019 and March 2021 by banks and fulfilled all kinds of credit requirements of the RAM sector (Retail, Agriculture and MSME). The Finance Ministry said that ₹4.94 lakh crore were distributed under the outreach programme.

This Credit Outreach Programme, through co-lending arrangements between banks and NBFCs and the fintech sector, will extend loans at affordable interest rates to smaller borrowers this festive season, it said.