Electrification of buses & trucks is essential for achieving India's decarbonisation targets (See 'Corp Brief') Health-Seeking Behaviour Strengthens as Proportion of Population Reported Ailing in 2025 Nearly Doubles (See 'Corp Brief') Railway Minister to Flag Off Extended Srinagar-Jammu Vande Bharat (See 'Corp Brief') Secretary, DFS Lauds MUDRA Schemes of Financial Inclusion with Public Sector Banks (See 'Corp Brief') PMLA - Separate properties of another company or LLP cannot be attached merely because of shareholding linkage, absent demonstrated money trail to such properties: SAFEMA (See 'Legal Desk') CCI approves Mizuho Securities to acquire certain equity of Avendus Capital (See 'Corp Brief') CCI approves merger of A1 Agri Global, B.N. Agritech & Salasar Balaji Overseas (See 'Corp Brief') CCI approves acquisition by MAIF in Maple IM, Maple PM & Maple Trust (See 'Corp Brief') IBC - Minimum default threshold u/s 4 is met in case involving operational debt denominated in foreign currency, if foreign currency amount is converted into Indian Rupees with reference to exchange rate prevailing on date of invoice: NCLT (See 'Legal Desk') World IP day - Govt announces 3-year fee waiver for sports-related IP registrations (See 'Corp Brief') Govt organizes workshop on developing critical minerals value chain (See 'Corp Brief') Competition Act - Tender conditions & eligibility criteria are primarily within procurer's domain and, absent evidence that such clauses restricts competition or cause exclusionary harm, no intervention is warranted: CCI (See 'Legal Desk') TRAI releases Consultation Paper on 'Proliferation of Public Wi-Fi Networks in India' (See 'Corp Brief') DoP and DTDC sign MoU to strengthen Logistics and E-Commerce in India (See 'Corp Brief') Trade Mark - Defendants' conduct of running a coordinated fraudulent recruitment scheme, impersonating the plaintiffs & extracting money from each candidate, is deliberate exploitation of plaintiffs' goodwill & causes reputational harm: HC (See 'Legal Desk') PDUNASS-Gujarat NLU launch Programme on Labour Law and Social Security Compliance (See 'Corp Brief') Shivraj to launch PMGSY-IV Batch-II in Srinagar (See 'Corp Brief') India emphasises Inclusive and Ecosystem Based Governance of Small Scale Fisheries (See 'Corp Brief') SAFEMA - Certain transaction falls within ambit of benami transaction where appellants failed to produce supporting material, despite opportunity, to establish legitimate source of funds either in hands of lender or alleged contributors: SAFEMA TRIBUNAL (See 'Legal Desk') Diaspora vital connectors between India and global innovation ecosystems: MoS (See 'Corp Brief') Srinagar Khel Sankalp affirms unified commitment to athlete-centric sports ecosystem (See 'Corp Brief') IBC - If corporate debtor is solvent & functioning company, then insolvency process invoked only to secure payment of individual dues by initiation of CIRP, amounts to misuse of IBC as recovery mechanism: SC (See 'Legal Desk') Reining in Misuse of IBC for Recovery (See CORP EINSICHT) SAMAVESH Portal, NMBA 2.0, SETU and SMILE Beggary Apps Launched at Chandigarh Shivir (See 'Corp Brief') PMLA - Attachment of a residential property upheld where Act itself permits attachment not only of property directly acquired from proceeds of crime, but also of untainted property representing equivalent value where actual proceeds of crime are unavailable or untraceable: HC (See 'Legal Desk') Veep urges Youth to become Job Creators and Nation-Builders (See 'Corp Brief') CCIC launches 'Soul Threads' - A Heritage Designer Collection Celebrating Artisanal Legacy (See 'Corp Brief') IBC - If statutory authority, during subsistence of moratorium u/s 14, directs bank to place lien on bank accounts of Corporate Debtor, and bank acts on same, it would amount to execution against Corporate Debtor and is barred by Sec 14: NCLT (See 'Legal Desk')

Rs 25 Lakh loans, decision in 14 days - Govt moves to enhance credit access for MSMEs

Published: Mar 12, 2025

By TIOLCorplaws News Service

NEW DELHI, MAR 12, 2025: THE Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as a regulator, provides an enabling framework for Regulated Entities (REs) to cater to the financing needs of various sectors of the economy within the prudential boundaries. Further, credit related matters of REs are largely deregulated and the same are governed by the Board approved loan policies of the REs framed under the ambit of relevant regulatory and statutory requirements and terms and conditions of the loan agreement between the borrower and the RE. Banks have been advised to furnish the MSME borrowers with an indicative checklist of documents required for processing the loan application at the time of applying for the loan. For loans up to Rs.25 lakh to units in the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) borrowers, banks are advised that the timelines for credit decisions shall not be more than 14 working days. Various measures have been taken for increasing access to credit and finance for MSMEs.

These include:

- Specific targets for lending to MSME sector have been prescribed in Priority Sector guidelines dated 4.9.2020.

- SCBs have been mandated not to accept collateral security in the case of loans up to Rs.10 lakh extended to units in the MSE sector.

- Computation of working capital requirements of MSE units to be minimum 20% of the projected annual turnover for borrowal limits up to Rs.5 crore.

- Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) has been operationalized to address the problem of delayed payments to MSMEs.

- Banks have been advised to link interest rates of loans extended to MSMEs to an external benchmark.

- RBI's Account Aggregator (AA) framework and proposed Third Cohort under Regulatory Sandbox (RS) for MSME Lending is expected to spur innovations that can fill the lending gap for MSMEs through the use of technology and data analytics.

- RBI's Unified Lending Interface (ULI) will make credit more accessible to underserved populations.

- GST Sahay App of SIDBI facilitates 'on tap' invoice-based (cash flow based) small value credit to micro enterprises as a paperless journey.

- Udyam Assist Platform (UAP) to register Informal Micro Enterprises (IMEs) i.e. micro enterprises not registered under the GST regime.

- Under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna (PMMY), Government has taken various steps towards effective implementation of the Scheme. These include publicity campaigns, simplification of application form, Credit Guarantee Scheme, nomination of Mudra Nodal Officer, frequent reviews at various levels to monitor the achievement against allocated target, etc. Online platforms like Jansamarth portal provide a quick and efficient way to get loans for individuals and businesses, with approvals based on digital evaluation of the applicant's data.

- PSBLoansin59minutes enables MSMEs to obtain In-principle approval of loans from lenders onboarded on the platform.

- SAMADHAAN Portal launched for monitoring of outstanding dues to the MSEs from the buyers of goods and services xiii. The Government of India has launched various Credit Guarantee schemes for the benefit of MSMEs.

- New Credit Assessment Model based on the scoring of digital footprints of MSMEs developed by PSBs will leverage the digitally fetched and verifiable data available in the ecosystem and devise automated journeys for MSME Loan appraisal using objective decisioning for all loan applications and model-based limit assessment for MSME borrowers.

This information was given by Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha yesterday.

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