New Delhi, July 24 (KNN) Out of 2, 00,660 applications submitted, 1,59,583 applications for loans on the psbloansin59minutes.com portal have been accorded in principle approval since the launch of the portal, said Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs.

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, he said sanctions have been made in respect of 1, 33,448 cases under 59-minutes scheme to MSMEs. Bank wise details of loans accorded in principle approval and sanctioned by banks since launch of the portal as on 17th July, 2019 is given in the Annexure.

The Minister said government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have taken several steps to ensure access of credit to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which inter-alia, include, advice to all Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) to achieve a 20% year-on-year growth in credit to MSEs, allocation of 60% of the MSEs advances to the micro enterprise accounts etc.         

Also, some other measures include a 10% annual growth in number of micro enterprise accounts, additional working capital limit to meet the requirements arising due to unforeseen/seasonal increase in demand, adoption of one cluster, operationalizing at least one specialized MSME Branch in every district, simplified computation of working capital of MSE units to make it minimum 20%, he added.  

Additionally, he said that government launched a Support and Outreach Programme for MSMEs on 2nd November, 2018.

The programme, inter-alia, included initiatives for MSMEs on access to credit such as through the psbloansin59minutes portal, access to market, technology up gradation, ease of doing business, social security for MSME sector employees etc.