Centre issues Model Rules to States to aid Ease of Doing Business in Agroforestry (See 'Corp Brief') We have to make cycling trend in this modern generation: Mandaviya (See 'Corp Brief') Sonowal hails Brahma Kumaris for 50 years of spiritual service and human upliftment (See 'Corp Brief') CEA organises All-India Electrical Safety awareness programme (See 'Corp Brief') Arbitration & Conciliation Act - Commercial Court not justified in refusing to release 25% of arbitral award to petitioner-company solely due to its change of name: HC (See 'Legal Desk') SEBI - Delay in filing appeal not condonable where facts reflect that appellant was clearly aware of proceedings commenced by SEBI but did not prosecute appeal: SAT (See 'Legal Desk') India sends 1st consignment of rose-scented Litchi from Pathankot to Qatar (See 'Corp Brief') Govt approves ESI Amnesty Scheme - 2025 to reduce litigation (See 'Corp Brief') Sonowal inaugurates India's First Maritime NBFC - Sagarmala Finance Corporation Limited (See 'Corp Brief') NeGD launches 'AI in Governance' Training Program for Govt Officials at IIT Delhi (See 'Corp Brief') ECI starts proceedings to delist 345 RUPPs to begin with (See 'Corp Brief') Negotiable Instruments Act - as is trite law, a legal notice must be read as a whole & isolated errors such as typographical mistakes should not invalidate the entire notice: HC (See 'Legal Desk') Mega Infra Projects in Jharkhand, Sikkim, Assam & Arunachal Pradesh reviewed (See 'Corp Brief') President of India to preside over 'MSME Day' (See 'Corp Brief') NMDC invites applications for fully sponsored Education Programs for Tribal Youth (See 'Corp Brief') PMLA - Attachment of property does not effect or transfer title, unless property is confiscated and it can be when accused is convicted: SAFEMA (See 'Legal Desk') Workshop with FinTech Companies on expanding FASTag ecosystem (See 'Corp Brief') Bid submission timeline extended for SECI's Green Ammonia tender (See 'Corp Brief') Axiom-4 Marks Realisation of Vikram Sarabhai's dream: MoS (See 'Corp Brief') IBC - Dues of State is entitled to be treated as secured creditor u/s 53 of IBC: NCLAT (See 'Legal Desk') ECI to begin Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in Bihar (See 'Corp Brief') MoS calls for closer collaboration among IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, IIMC & CSIR (See 'Corp Brief') 7th Helicopter & Small Aircraft Summit held in Pune (See 'Corp Brief') CCI approves acquisition of shares in Aakash Educational by Manipal Health Systems (See 'Corp Brief') IPR - Merely adding mandarin character can't add any distinctiveness for being granted registration, and that too qua pharmaceutical product, if said character can't be deciphered by general public: HC (See 'Legal Desk') CCI approves acquisition in Manappuram Finance & Manappuram Asset Finance by Bain Capital (See 'Corp Brief') CCI okays acquisition of equity of Haldiram Snacks by Alpha Wave Ventures (See 'Corp Brief') Amended BharatNet Program operationalises in Gujarat (See 'Corp Brief') PMLA - Enforcement Directorate must pass orders under of retention under section 20(1) and 21(1) of the PMLA in respect of seized property and seized records: SAFEMA (See 'Legal Desk') Sonowal calls for Sports Resurgence in Assam (See 'Corp Brief') Vanijya Bhawan is symbol of Good Governance, Excellence: Goyal (See 'Corp Brief') SARFAESI - equitable considerations cannot override statutory auction process; writ jurisdiction under Article 226 cannot be invoked to compel bank to accept One Time Settlement or interfere with SARFAESI proceedings already adjudicated under statutory forum: HC (See 'Legal Desk') Hindustan Copper welcomes Chile's CODELCO Team to India (See 'Corp Brief') IICA inks MoU with National Academy of Defence Production (See 'Corp Brief') Competition Act - mere dissatisfaction with service conditions or operational practices did not warrant intervention, more so where any prima facie case under Section 3 or 4 of the Act are not made out: CCI (See 'Legal Desk') Chouhan reviews ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering in Bhopal (See 'Corp Brief') DG RPF calls for synergised action by RPF-GRP across States to Safeguard Railway Pax (See 'Corp Brief') Trade Marks - Where an application for registration of Trade Mark is filed on proposed to be used basis, the mark can still acquire distinctiveness before registration; refusal of registration based on lack of distinctiveness unjustified, more so where similar marks were registered by same authority: HC (See 'Legal Desk') PM leads nationwide celebrations of 11th International Day of Yoga (See 'Corp Brief') PMLA - Once property is already auctioned by bank under SARFAESI, legal implications of sale depended on whether sale certificate had been issued: SAFEMA (See 'Legal Desk') NCLAT is not a mere rubber stamp for CoC decisions (See CORP EINSICHT)

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.

TIOL CORP SEARCH

TIOL GROUP WEBSITES