Centre Launches PM SVANIDHI scheme to provide affordable loans to street vendors

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched PM SVANIDHI (Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi) scheme, which is a special micro-credit facility scheme for providing affordable loan to street vendors, to help them to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19 lockdown.
The scheme is as per the announcement by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 14 under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat economic package.
PM SVANIDHI Scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors, who had been vending on or before 24th March 2020, in urban areas.
The scheme is valid until March 2022 and will provide total liquidity of Rs 5,000 crore.
Vendors can avail a working capital loan of upto Rs 10,000 to be repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
An interest subsidy at the rate of 7 percent per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries on timely and early repayment of the loan, through Direct Benefit Transfer on six monthly basis.
SIDBI will be the technical partner for implementation of the scheme.
Credit guarantee to the lending institutions will be managed through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).
The lending institutions under the Scheme include Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, NBFCs, Micro Finance institutions and Self Help Group banks.