The Union government on Thursday has extended the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi or the PM SVANidhi scheme beyond March 2022 till December 2024.
The extension was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is expected to benefit nearly 1.2 crore citizens of Urban India.
According to a press release by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the government extended the scheme with a focus on enhanced collateral-free affordable loan corpus, increased adoption of digital transactions, and holistic socio-economic development of the Street Vendors and their families.
What is PM SVANidhi Scheme?
Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi or PM SVANidhi is a central sector scheme that provides affordable collateral-free loans to the Street Vendors in India.
The scheme was launched in June 2020 and is fully funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with the following objectives:
- To facilitate working capital loans up to 10,000;
- To incentivize regular repayment; and
- To reward digital transactions
The Scheme is available to all street vendors engaged in vending in urban areas on or before March 24, 2020.
Initially, the PM SVANidhi Scheme had envisaged facilitating loans for an amount of Rs. 5,000 crore.
However, the recent approval has increased the loan amount to Rs. 8,100 crore, thereby providing the Street vendors working capital to further expand their business and making them AtmaNirbhar or self-sufficient.
The budget for the promotion of digital payments including cashback to the vendors has also been enhanced.
PM SVANidhi Scheme Achievements
Under PM SVANidhi, significant achievements have already been made. As of April 25, 2022, 31.9 lakh loans have been sanctioned and 29.6 lakh loans amounting to Rs. 2,931 crore have been disbursed.
As regards the 2nd loan, 2.3 lakh loans have been sanctioned and 1.9 lakh loans amounting to Rs.385 crore have been disbursed.
The beneficiary Street Vendors have conducted more than 13.5 crore digital transactions and have been given a cashback of Rs.10 crore. An amount of Rs.51 crore has been paid as Interest Subsidy.
Reasons behind the extension of the Scheme
The proposed extension of the Scheme has been necessitated as the circumstances that led to the launch of the Scheme in June 2020 i.e. the pandemic and related stress on the small businesses, have not fully retracted.
The extension of lending till December 2024, would assist in institutionalizing the 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 the Lending Institutions and providing holistic socio-economic upliftment for the Street Vendors and their families.