NEW DELHI: The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) has helped save almost 13.5 lakh units and 1.5 crore jobs in the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) sector, a report by State Bank of India on Thursday showed.
In absolute terms, MSME loan accounts worth Rs 1.8 lakh crore were saved from slipping into NPA.
“This means that around 14% of the outstanding MSME credit (including 2% of restructured) has been saved from slipping into NPA because of the ECLG scheme,” said S K Ghosh, SBI’s group chief economic advisor in the report.
Of the 13.5 lakh MSME accounts that are saved, almost 93.7% are in micro and small category, 48% belong to the micro category and nearly 46% are the small borrowers.
The remaining 6% belong to the medium category, according to SBI Research.
In May 2020, the government launched the ECLGS scheme for MSME sector to provide relief to the sector amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and since then the government has extended the scheme to cover various industries (till now four extended versions of ECLG scheme have come out).
Under the ECLGS scheme, MSMEs get up to 20% of the borrower’s total outstanding credit and up to Rs 25 crore is guaranteed by the government.