FM reviews implementation of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat package with secretaries

New Delhi, Dec. 14 (IANS): Banks have sanctioned additional credit amounting to INR 2,05,563 crore to 80,93,491 borrowers under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).

The INR 3 lakh crore ECLGS scheme was announced by the government early this year as part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package (ANBP) to provide liquidity support of medium and small sector in the time of the pandemic.

As per the progress tracked by the Centre, as on December 4, top 23 Private Sector Banks and 31 NBFCs, additional credit amounting to INR 2,05,563 crore has been sanctioned, while an amount of INR 1,58,626 crore has been disbursed to 40,49,489 borrowers.

The scheme was amended on November 26 and its duration has now been extended till December 31, 2021. Also, the turnover limit prescribed therein has been removed.

It is expected that 45 lakh units can resume business activity and safeguard jobs through this scheme.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday concluded a comprehensive review of ANBP with the secretaries of various ministries/departments concerned over three days. The review focused on key implementation issues to endure that the package generated the desired results.

As per the progress report presented during the review as on December 4, Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have approved purchase of portfolio of INR 27,794 crore and are currently in process of approval/negotiations for INR 1,400 crore under the INR 45,000 crore Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 2.0 for NBFCs. The timeline for purchase of bonds or Commercial Papers (CPs) has been further extended till December 31, 2020. As of December 4, INR 25,000 crore has been disbursed out of this special facility. Balance amount of INR 5,000 crore under Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) allocated to Nabard by RBI for smaller Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Non-Banking Financial Companies-Micro Finance Institutions (NBFCs-MFIs).

Besides, Nabard had issued the guidelines on October 6 to roll out disbursement out of SLF for smaller NBFCs and NBFC-MFIs.

Further, proposals amounting to INR 690 crore has been sanctioned to 6 NBFCs-MFIs out of the balance amount of INR 5,000 crore. Disbursement of INR 130 crore has been done till December 4.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued refunds of over INR 1,45,619 crore to more than 89.29 lakh taxpayers between April 1, 2020 and December 8. Income Tax refunds of INR 43,274 crore have been issued in 87,29,626 cases and corporate tax refunds of INR 1,02,345 crore have been issued in 1,99,554 cases.

Under Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package, it was announced that special interest-free 50-year loans will be given to states for capital expenditure for INR 12,000 crore. As on December 7, so far, 27 state governments have submitted proposals under the scheme for new and ongoing capital works/projects.

Projects amounting to INR 8455.61 crore under part-I and part-II of the scheme have been approved so far and an amount of INR 4,227.80 crore, as first instalment, has been released to the states.

Under the INR 90,000 crore Liquidity Injection for DISCOMs, as on December 10, INR 118,273 crore worth of loans have been sanctioned and INR 31,136 crore has already been disbursed/released. Another release of INR 30,000 crore to various states is under process.