Prime Minister's Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Narendra Modi, today approved the continuation of lending under the Prime Minister's Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) beyond March 2022 until December 2024, with a focus on enhanced collateral-free affordable loan corpus, increased adoption of digital transactions, and holistic socio-economic development of Street Vendors and their families.
The Scheme makes affordable collateral-free loans available to street vendors. The Scheme planned to make loans worth Rs. 5,000 crore is available.
With today's approval, the loan amount has been increased to Rs. 8,100 crore, providing the street vendors with working capital to further expand their businesses and making them AtmaNirbhar.
The budget for digital payment promotion, including cashback to vendors, has also been increased. The approval is expected to benefit nearly 1.2 crore Indians living in cities.
Significant progress has already been made under PM SVANidhi. As of April 25, 2022, 31.9 lakh loans had been sanctioned, with 29.6 lakh loans totaling Rs. 2,931 crore disbursed.
In terms of the second loan, 2.3 lakh loans have been sanctioned, with 1.9 lakh loans totaling Rs.385 crore disbursed.
The Street Vendors who have benefited have completed over 13.5 crore digital transactions and have received a cashback of Rs.10 crore. Interest Subsidy in the amount of Rs.51 crore has been paid.
The proposed extension of the Scheme is necessary because the circumstances that led to the Scheme's launch in June 2020, namely the pandemic and related stress on small businesses, have not fully abated.
The extension of lending until December 2024 would help to institutionalize access to formal credit channels, provide an assured source of credit to help them plan their business expansion, increase the adoption of digital transactions, reduce the impact of potential NPAs on lending institutions, and provide holistic socio-economic upliftment for street vendors and their families.
