Courtesy-India Today
While addressing the media on Monday at the National Media Centre, Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister of India announced some economic relief measures for the health and other sectors.
A loan guarantee scheme worth ₹1.1 lakh crore has been announced for the COVID-19 affected sectors which are bifurcated into two divisions.
An amount of ₹50,000 crore is to be devoted to the health sectors to scale medical infrastructure targeting underserved areas. For new projects related to health and medical infrastructure in the cities excluding the eight metropolitan cities along with expansion, a Guarantee cover is announced with a guarantee coverage of 50% for expansion along with 75% for new projects.
With a guarantee duration of up to 3 years, a maximum loan of ₹100 crores has been declared with an interest rate capped at 7.95% while an interest rate capped at 8.25% p.a for other sectors for which an amount of ₹60,000 crores has been decided.
Launched as a part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package in May 2020, an additional guarantee scheme for an emergency credit line worth ₹1.5 lakh crore has been announced by the Finance Minister. From ₹3 lakh crore to ₹4.5 lakh crore, the overall cap of admissible guarantee is to be raised, she added.
To facilitate loans up to ₹25 lakh persons through Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), a credit guarantee scheme for the same has been announced where for incremental lending, with an interest at least 2% below maximum rate prescribed by RBI, maximum loan tenure of 3 years, 80% of assistance is to be used by MFI for the above mentioned.