Banks extend Rs 11,168-crore credit

New Delhi: Banks have sanctioned loans worth Rs 11,168 crore to about 2 lakh borrowers under the credit outreach programme, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

Under this programme, banks have been holding special camps across various parts of the country to sanction loans to eligible borrowers as per the prudential norms. Most of the banks have announced festival offers at concessional rates of interest and waived processing charges.

"During her review of PSBs in Aug, Smt @nsitharaman had exhorted banks to conduct Credit Outreach Programme in Oct to support revival of economic growth. In line with this, banks have been holding district-wise & sector-wise loan outreach programmes," a tweet by the Finance Minister's office said.

The loans under the Credit Outreach Programme are over and above those sanctioned and disbursed under the various central government loan guarantee schemes, it added. As per the data shared by the Finance Ministry, as much as Rs 6,268 crore business loans were sanctioned to about 1 lakh beneficiaries, while vehicle loans worth Rs 448 crore were sanctioned to 5,058 borrowers.

Housing loans worth Rs 762 crore were sanctioned to 3,401 borrowers as of October 20, 2021, it said. Similar outreach programmes were held between October 2019 and March 2021 by banks and fulfilled all kinds of credit requirements of the RAM sector (Retail, Agriculture and MSME). The Finance Ministry said that Rs 4.94 lakh crore were distributed under the outreach programme.

This Credit Outreach Programme, through co-lending arrangements between banks and NBFCs and the fintech sector, will extend loans at affordable interest rates to smaller borrowers this festive season, it said.