Nagpur, Aug 29 (KNN) Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), a dedicated financial institution to cater to the financial need of the MSME sector, has recently launched 'Make in India Soft Loan Fund for MSMEs'

(SMILE), under which twenty five sectors have been identified and the RBI has created a corpus of Rs. 10, 000 crore to provide soft loan.

Anil Kulkarni, General Manager, SIDBI, Indore Region, while speaking at a programme organised by the Vidharbha Industries Association (VIA) Economic and Finance Forum, said under the scheme entrepreneurs are provided soft loan in the nature of quasi equity and term loan to meet the required debt-equity ratio for establishment of new unit, as also for modernization, expansion and technical up gradation by the existing unit.

He said that twenty five sectors have been identified under the scheme and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has created a corpus of Rs. 10000 crore to provide soft loan.  Other sectors can also be added on merit.

P.K. Nath, Deputy General Manager, SIDBI, Nagpur highlighted features of the scheme where interest rate is between 9.15% to 9.35% for the soft loan and between 9.45% to 9.95% for the term loan  under SMILE Scheme for a period of three years and thereafter regular rate of interest.

"Soft loan is available up to 10% of the project cost subject to a maximum of 20 lacs and in case of enterprise promoted by SC/ST/Women, this is 15% of the project cost subject to a maximum of Rs. 30 Lakh ,"he explained.

He, however said that minimum promoter's contribution is 15% for project cost upto one crore and 20% for the rest, under the scheme, repayment period is extended upto 10 years with moratorium period of 36 months.

He stated that the loan processing fees is also kept at 0.50% which is lower than the normal charges of 1%, under the SMILE Scheme there is no prepayment charges if the entrepreneur wish to pay the loan early as against the normal prepayment charges of 1% to 3% levies in other loans.

Nath further said that SIDBI also offer unsecured loan under risk capital scheme for the existing profit making industries having a good track record.

SIDBI is also processing of subsidies under TUFS, CLCSS and TEQUP as nodal agency of the Government of India for implementation for these schemes.

Atul Pande, President, VIA has urged SIDBI, being a pioneer institution for the promotion of MSME, should also look at the problem of the sickness in the SME sector and extend necessary help them to come out of the situation.

A transparent and bold initiative is the need of the hours to arrest sickness at the appropriate time.

(KNN Bureau)