Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Govt To Support Nearly 50 Lakh Street Vendors

New Delhi: As part of the second instalment of the economic package announced by the Prime Minister on Tuesday night, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her media briefing on Thursday, said that Rs.5000 crore would be earmarked as a special credit facility for street vendors. She pointed out that COVID-19 has had an adverse impact on the livelihoods of street vendors.

Easy Access To Credit

• • Government will launch a special scheme within one month to facilitate easy access to credit to help street vendors.
• • Initial working capital of up to Rs.10,000 would be front-loaded.
• • Digital payments will be incentivised through monetary rewards and enhanced working capital credit would be made available for good repayment behaviour.
• • The scheme is set to support nearly 50 lakh street vendors.
• • The special credit facility will provide liquidity of Rs.5000 crores.

Rs.1500 Crores Interest Subvention For Mudra-Shishu Loans

• • Small businesses under MUDRA have been disrupted to a very large extent and COVID-19 has also impacted their capacity to pay EMIs.
• • The RBI has already granted a moratorium on loans.
• • The current portfolio of MUDRA-Shishu loans is Rs.1.62 lakh crore with a maximum loan amount of Rs.50,000.
• • The Centre will provide interest subvention of 2% for prompt payees for a period of one year.
• • There will be a relief of Rs.1500 Crore to MUDRA-Shishu loanees.