NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, JUNE 16
Honouring the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s appeal to support MSMEs hit by coronavirus-induced lockdown, nationalised banks in the state disbursed loans worth over Rs 2,400 crore in the last 15 days, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
Out of total 89,767 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) which had applied for loans during this two weeks time, almost 97 percent or 87,834 applications were approved by the banks, said MK Das, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Principal Secretary (Industries).
While loans worth Rs 5,373 crore has been approved for these 87,834 applicants, Rs 2,428 crore has already been disbursed to 31,000 of these MSMEs in the last 15 days, Das said.
Earlier on May 30, Rupani chaired a virtual meeting through video-conferencing facility with bank officials and industry representatives to discuss ways to help MSME units hit by the lockdown.
As per a rough estimate, Gujarat has around 33 lakh MSME units providing employment to 1.5 crore people, Das added.
Honouring Rupani’s appeal, nationalised banks disbursed Rs 2,428 crore in the last 15 days, the release said, adding that some private banks have also come forward to provide loans to the MSME units.
Das further stated and added that Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India and Union Bank of India have cleared 33,141, 18,074 and 15,866 loan applications, respectively.
The distribution of bank loans worth Rs. 2428-crore for MSME units had covered 33 districts of Gujarat. Of them, the highest amount of Rs. 569.21-crore was distributed in Ahmedabad district, followed by Rs. 369.59 crore in Surat and Rs. 240.45-crore in Vadodara.
Under the guidance of the Chief Minister, for the prompt clearance and follow-up of loans, a committee headed by District Collector was formed in each district. The other members of the committee included an officer of District Industry Centre, Lead Bank Officer, and officials of the Chamber of Commerce and MSME units.
It should be noted here that the coordination and monitoring of the entire loan process are being done transparently under the guidance of Das by the MSME Commissionerate and using single window system.
Das exhorted that these loan assistances would give much-needed boost to MSME units in prevalent adverse scenario of COVID-19.
