Over Rs 81,000-crore loans given: Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: The government on Monday said loans worth over Rs 81,000 crore were disbursed during the nine-day outreach programme, or loan mela, organised by public sector banks from October 1. It also said another outreach programme would be conducted for four days, starting October 21.

The programmes are part of government’s move to address liquidity issues that impact consumption. Briefing the press, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who met public sector bank heads on Monday, said she discussed a host of issues like re-assuring depositors of Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank, expediting dues of SMEs and bank mergers.

Sitharaman declared that all public sector banks are flushed with money and are ready to lend to all sectors, including medium and small-scale enterprises (MSEs).

In order to ensure liquidity for small businesses, Sitharaman said banks have been asked to provide bill discounting facility to the MSME sector against payments due from the large corporates. “According to returns filed by the large corporates to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, as much as Rs 40,000 crore is due to the MSME sector. All efforts would be made to ensure that MSMEs get their dues ahead of Diwali by October 27,” she said.

“Credit across all sectors was given by banks, say agriculture and auto sectors, and the total amount of money given by banks stood at Rs 81,781 crore in nine days,” she added.