Mumbai, Feb 3 (KNN) The State Bank of India (SBI) is working on a scheme under which it would help the MSMEs, with turnover upto Rs 25 crore, who are now facing difficulty in surviving post demonetization and economic slowdown.

SBI Managing Director Rajnish Kumar told Indian Express that it is working on the modalities of the scheme for SMEs with turnover up to Rs 25 crore. The scheme will be applicable to SMEs which were making profits and now finding it difficult to service their loan repayment or payment schedules.

“We have a huge SME loan portfolio. We will help genuine SMEs which are finding the current environment tough. We have over one million SME customer base,” he told IE.

According to RBI data, SBI accounts for half — close to Rs 1,70,000 crore — of the total SME portfolio of Rs 3,43,600 crore of the entire banking sector.

MSME was one of the worst hit sectors post demonetization as they deal in huge cash transactions for their day to day business requirements, wage payments, purchases, logistics etc.

The MSME associations had approached RBI, Finance Ministry and even PMO to urge relaxations or incentives for the cash driven informal sector.