Loan outreach: PSBs sanction ‘11,168 cr to 1.93 lakh accounts’

Banks have sanctioned loans worth Rs 11,168 crore to about 1.93 lakh accounts under the credit outreach programme, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Tuesday. Banks are holding special camps across the country to sanction loans to eligible borrowers ahead of the festival season.

The loans under the credit outreach programme are over and above those sanctioned and disbursed under the various central government loan guarantee schemes, the Finance Ministry said in a tweet. A total of Rs 6,268 crore business loans were sanctioned to about 1 lakh beneficiaries, while vehicle loans worth Rs 448 crore were sanctioned to 5,058 borrowers. Housing loans worth Rs 762 crore were sanctioned to 3,401 borrowers as of October 20, 2021, it said.

The government had earlier this month urged public sector banks (PSBs) to start a nationwide credit outreach programme to take advantage of the potential loan demand during the festival season ahead of Diwali. The move followed Sitharaman’s instruction in August to state-run lenders to initiate the outreach programme.

Over Rs 4.94 lakh crore was disbursed by banks between October 2019 and March 2021 through outreach initiatives undertaken by them. Having remained muted for months together, non-food loan flow witnessed an uptick of late. Growth in non-food bank credit improved to 6.7 per cent in August from 5.5 per cent a year earlier. Loans to industry grew 2.3 per cent from 0.4 per cent but still remained low.