Banks asked to speed up financing of over 59,000 projects under PMEGP

Banks have been asked to speed up the disbursal of loans under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP). The government said banks should ensure that they meet the set target of financing over 59,000 projects in the current fiscal.

Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Dinsha Patel said, "I request all the CMDs of banks to issue policy circulars to the financing branches to ensure fulfillment of the targets allocated."

At National Workshop on the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme Patel said, for the current fiscal, the ministry has set a target of implementing 59,714 projects under the PMEGP with margin money assistance of Rs 836 crore which will generate employment for 5.97 lakh persons.

The minister informed that up till now only 10 per cent of the loan amount has been disbursed for this financial year. He said, it is important to bring Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to every village.

Under the scheme, from the total amount of loan to be disbursed, 15% has been sanctioned for scheduled castes, while 7.5 per cent will be for scheduled tribes, 27 per cent for other backward classes, 5 per cent for minorities and 30 per cent for women.

The scheme was launched in 2008, since then around one lakh projects have been sanctioned and about 10 lakh people have been provided jobs.

However under PMEGP scheme urban and rural entrepreneurs in the general category have also been provided a subsidy of 15% and 25% on the project cost while the urban and rural businessmen of the weaker sections of society have been provided a 25 per cent and 35 per cent subsidy.

The KVIC is the nodal agency responsible for the implementation of PMEGP, set the targets for its field officers and the Khadi and Village industries boards of various states.

At the workshop an agreement was signed between Union Bank of India and KVC for a 'one bank, one nodal branch' concept, under this agreement bank will be coordinating the operations of its branches across the country through a single nodal branch.