New Delhi, Feb 9 (KNN) Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Nitin Gadkari has said around 91 lakh guarantees under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee (ECLGS) Scheme have been issued till January 25 this year.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Monday, he said, "Under Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, around 91 lakh guarantees have been issued till 25.01.2021."

He also informed the upper house that during the current financial year (April-December), a total number of 31,923 units were setup under the ongoing Prime Minister Employment Generation programme (PMEGP) and 5,21,746 guarantees were issued under another ongoing scheme - Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises.

''The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), has created a Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore,'' Gadkari said while replying to a separate question.

Last year, On May 20, the Cabinet had approved additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore at a concessional rate of 9.25 per cent through Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector.

Under the scheme, 100 per cent guarantee coverage will be provided by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore to eligible MSMEs and interested Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency borrowers in the form of a guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) facility.

For this purpose, a corpus of Rs 41,600 crore was set up by the government, spread over the current and next three financial years.

The scheme was applicable to all loans sanctioned under the GECL facility during the period from the date of announcement of the scheme to October 31 or till the amount of Rs 3 lakh crore is sanctioned under GECL, whichever is earlier.

All MSME borrower accounts with an outstanding credit of up to Rs 50 crore as on February 29, which were less than or equal to 60 days past due as on that date, i.e., regular, SMA-0 and SMA-1 accounts, and with an annual turnover of up to Rs 250 crore, are eligible for GECL funding under the scheme.