NEW DELHI: Apparel exporters body AEPC on Tuesday urged the government to raise MSME's outstanding loan limit to Rs 100 crore from Rs 25 crore at present for being eligible for ECLGS with a view to help the sector.
Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel also requested the government to make necessary amendments in the eligibility criteria for ECLGS based on the new definition of MSMEs so as to extend the credit benefit to all MSME exporters regardless of their turnover.
"Borrowers with outstanding loans of up to Rs 100 crore should be considered for this ECLGS scheme," Sakthivel said in a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The eligibility criteria to apply for the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) scheme may be amended with no annual turnover for exporters, he said.
He said the ECLGS scheme aims to provide 100 per cent guarantee coverage for the Guaranteed Emergency Credit Line (GECL), which is a pre-approved sanction limit of up to 20 per cent of loan outstanding as on 29 February 2020 to eligible borrowers.
These loans can be additional working capital term loan facility (in case of banks and FIs), and additional term loan facility (in case of NBFCs) from all member lending institutions (MLIs) to eligible enterprises/ MSME borrowers in view of COVID-19 crisis, he added.
"In operational guidelines of ECLGS, it is mentioned that all business enterprises/ MSME borrower accounts with combined outstanding loans across all MLIs of up to Rs 25 crore as on February 29, 2020, and annual turnover of up to Rs 100 crore for FY 2019-20 are eligible," the chairman said.
He added that these measures will help in mitigating the suffering of the industry and the millions of workers.