BHUBANESWAR: Job creation under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) has fallen flat in the State due to non-cooperation of commercial banks in disbursement of loans under the scheme.
Though the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Khadi and Village Industries Board and District Industries Centres have forwarded 3,741 applications involving margin money of Rs 87 crores to 33 commercial banks for sanction of loan, only seven projects were approved by three banks by end of November, 2016.
After reviewing the bank-wise performance of the credit-linked subsidy programme under PMEGP, MSME Secretary LN Gupta expressed displeasure on the dismal performance of banks in sanction of projects and disbursement of loans.
Gupta requested the State Bank of India (SBI), which has the largest number of branch network in Odisha, to meet its target under the programme.
Giving a revised target of 700 units under the Government sponsored programme, he asked SBI to sanction 350 projects each in January and February.
As per the revised target, UCO Bank and Bank of India have been given the objective to sanction loans for 300 units each while the target for Andhra and Canara banks is 200 projects each.
In 2015-16, the target under margin money disbursement was `62.76 crores only whereas margin money claims amounting to `93.37 crores were received from various banks. An amount of `57.36 crores was disbursed in 2015-16. The State Government has made a provision of `57.00 crores for the scheme for 2016-17.
Gupta requested all the banks participating in the programme to achieve at least 70 percent of the target by January and the rest 30 percent by February.
He further requested ICICI, Axis, IDBI and HDFC banks to expedite their efforts to sanction loans to beneficiaries by end of this fiscal.
The general category beneficiaries under the scheme get a subsidy of 25 percent of the project cost in rural areas and 15 percent in urban areas. For beneficiaries belonging to special categories, the margin money subsidy is 35 percent in rural areas and 25 percent in urban areas.