About Rs 3,628 crore loans have been sanctioned under the PM SVANidhi or Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi scheme to over 34 lakh street vendors since its launch, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Speaking at an event organized on the occasion of Civil Services Day, Department of Financial Services Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said Rs 3,288 crore has been disbursed to 31.19 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme.
PM SVANidhi scheme was announced as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan in May 2020 to help street vendors, who were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resume their livelihood activities.
As per the scheme, a vendor could avail of a working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 followed by loans of Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000 in the second and third tranches, respectively, on repayment of earlier tranche or tranches.
The loan amount is directly released to beneficiaries by the lending institutions like banks at a concessional rate of 7 per cent.
Making a case for incentivization for digital transactions, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Secretary Manoj Joshi said there is a need to consider this so that it is further promoted and dependency on cash comes down.
Joshi also urged the banks to come forward for small-ticket loans like PM SVANidhi.
There is a space available for small-ticket loans, he said, adding that banks need to work out a model to tap this segment.
He also said that the MoHUA is in the process of application form simplification so that a single application can be used for successive loans.
Giving perspective on the scheme, Joshi said the government recently launched the 'Svanidhi se Samriddhi' program in 126 additional cities across 14 states and Union territories.
'Svanidhi se Samriddhi', an additional program of PM Svanidhi, was launched on January 4 last year in 125 cities under the first phase, covering around 35 lakh street vendors and their families.
