The Assam government signed an MoU with 37 MFIs to provide financial relief to several lakh poor women borrowers in the state to help them maintain good credit discipline in Covid times by expending over Rs 7,000 crore to the lenders.

Key Points:

=> The MoU will remain in force till March 31, 2023.

=> The finance department of the Government of Assam signed an MOU with microfinance institutions for implementation of Assam Micro Finance Incentive and Relief Scheme (AMFIRS), 2021 to provide succour to poor women borrowers who are not able to return the loan amount of microfinance institutions

=> Till June this year, there were 14 lakh women microfinance borrowers in the state of which about 11 lakh have either made regular repayments or whose payments are overdue, but are not marked as non-performing assets (NPA).

=> To these categories of borrowers, the government will pay a one-time incentive up to Rs 25,000 to incentivize such credit discipline.

=> For the remaining three lakh borrowers, who are stressed, destitute and whose accounts have become NPA, the government will consider providing partial or full relief based on a detailed evaluation.

=> Accordingly, Assam Micro Finance Incentive and Relief Scheme has been devised with an objective to balance long-term view of ensuring continuity of micro-finance for supporting economic activities of low income and poor households in the state and providing relief to eligible customers for tiding over current stress in the microfinance sector due to various operational reasons.

=>Among the prominent MFIs and Banks which have signed the MoU are Micro Finance Institutions Network, North East Small Finance Bank, Association of Small Finance Bank of India, Nightingale Finvest Private Limited, Grameen Development and Finance Pvt. Ltd, North East Micro Finance Association, Bandhan Bank Ltd, Arohan Financial Services Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd, Fusion Microfinance Pvt Ltd, L&T Financial Services and Asirvad Microfinance Ltd.