Budget may extend ECLGS as MSME woes continue

New Delhi, 7 Jan (KNN) The Central government is expected to prolong the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) owing to the economic impact arising from the restrictions imposed to curb the spike in covid-19 cases and variant omicron.

A source told Business Standard about the likelihood of the extension and it shall be announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the budget speech.

The scheme will be pushed further from the date of 31st March 2022 for MSMEs, hospitality, tourism, healthcare and infrastructure sector.

It shall be extended till June or September as talks pertaining to it are still ongoing and the Ministry of Finance is considering the concerns of the MSME industry, said the source.

Previously the government had extended the ECLGS for MSMEs till 31st March. 2022, and the cumulative loan sanction limit of ECLGS was expanded earlier from INR 3 trillion to INR 4.5 trillion.

Even experts have weighed in this discussion and said extension of ECLGS should be done for certain sectors which have faced the brunt of the economic impact of the pandemic.