SIDBI has announced a slew of additional support measures for MSMEs, which have been badly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The bank has introduced a new product SAFE (SIDBI Assistance to Facilitate Emergency response against coronavirus) Plus to provide emergency working capital against confirmed government orders, under which revolving working capital term loans shall be provided up to Rs100 lakh. The loans will be without collateral properties and will be delivered within 48 hours. Besides that, this limit has been made uniformly applicable across the entire spectrum of MSMEs subject to such borrowers having government orders. The rate of interest would be a nominal 5%. Another initiative is that the limit of SAFE loans has been enhanced from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore for executing government orders by those MSMEs which are eligible under the respective state government’s special policy package for interest subsidy/subvention or capital subsidy. The bank has also opened an additional financial window for healthcare sector under its flagship scheme called SMILE (SIDBI Make in India Soft Loan Fund for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises). Mohammad Mustafa, CMD, SIDBI said SIDBI will assure MSMEs that through ease of access to finance, SIDBI will isolate COVID-19 and strengthen nation’s resolve.
