Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on May 12th, 2020, announced a special economic and comprehensive package of Rs 20 lakh crore – equivalent to 10% of India’s GDP – to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in India. He gave a clarion call for Aatma Nirbhar Bharat or a Self-Reliant India Movement. He also outlined five pillars of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat – Economy, Infrastructure, System, Vibrant Demography and Demand.

Following the call of the Hon'ble Prime Minister, Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman laid down the details of the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package in a string of press conferences from 13^th May 2020 to 17^th May 2020.

The Ministries of Finance & Corporate Affairs have immediately started implementing the announcements related to the economic package under Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. The seriousness of the Government can be gauged from the regular reviews and monitoring of the implementation of economic package on an almost day to day basis.

 The progress made so far in implementation of the ongoing Schemes of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package by Ministries of Finance and Corporate Affairs, is as under:

1. Rs 30,000 crore Additional Emergency Working Capital Funding for farmers through NABARD - As on 28.08.2020, Rs. 25,000 crore has been disbursed. Balance amount of Rs. 5000 crore under Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) allocated to NABARD by RBI for smaller NBFCs and NBFC-MFIs. NABARD is finalising operational guidelines to roll it out soon.

Besides, NABARD has also launched Structured Finance & Partial Guarantee scheme in collaboration with two agencies & banks to help unrated NBFCs/MFIs to get credit from lenders.

This mechanism worked out with two such agencies and banks will enhance eligibility of credit by 5-6 times to those small MFIs who do not have any rating.  Once all the earmarked Rs.500 crore for this scheme is deployed, credit availment by those small NBFCs/MFIs to an extent of Rs. 2500 to Rs. 3000 crore is envisaged. This will be a game changer in reaching out to the people especially women in  the  the remote & unreached areas .

2. Rs 45,000 crore Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 2.0 for NBFCs, HFCs and MFIs to do fresh lending to MSMEs and individuals - As on 28.08.2020, Banks have approved purchase of portfolio of Rs. 25,055.5 crore and are currently in the process of approval/negotiations for additional Rs. 4,367 crore.
    
3. Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for NBFCs/HFCs/MFIs has also progressed well. SBICAP was assigned to set up a SPV to implement the Scheme. The Scheme was launched through a Press Release dated July 1, 2020. On the same day the regulator RBI also issued a circular to NBFCs and HFCs on the Scheme.
   
   As on 11^th September, 2020, thirty seven (37) proposals involving an amount of Rs. 10590 crore have been approved.   Six (06) applications seeking financing of Rs. 783.5 crore are under process.

4. Rs 3 lakh crore Collateral-Free Automatic Loans for Businesses, including MSMEs - To provide relief to the business, additional working capital finance of 20% of the outstanding credit as on 29^th February 2020, in the form of a Term Loan at a concessional rate of interest will be provided. This will be available to units with upto Rs 25 crore outstanding and turnover of up to Rs 100 crore whose accounts are standard. The units will not have to provide any guarantee or collateral of their own. The amount will be 100% guaranteed by the Government of India providing a total liquidity of Rs. 3 lakh crore to more than 45 lakh MSMEs.
   
   After taking Cabinet approval on 20.05.2020, Department of Financial Services issued Operational Guidelines for the Scheme on 23.05.2020 and Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) Fund was registered on 26.05.2020.  Guidelines amended on 4.8.2020 to include Individual loans for business, enhance loan outstanding ceiling to Rs 50 crore and annual turnover ceiling to Rs 250 crore.
   
   As on 10.09.2020, as reported by Public Sector Banks and top 23 Private Sector Banks, additional credit amounting to Rs. 1,63,226.49 crore has been sanctioned to 42,01,576 borrowers. Amount of Rs. 1,18,138.64 crore has been disbursed to 25,01,999 borrowers as on 10.09.2020.

5. Income Tax Refunds - Refunds of over Rs. 1,01,308 crore have been issued to more than 27.55 lakh taxpayers between 1st April, 2020 to 8 September, 2020. Income tax refunds of Rs. 30,768 crore have been issued in 25,83,507 cases & corporate tax refunds of Rs.70,540 crore have been issued in 1,71,155 cases. In fact, all corporate tax refunds up to Rs. 50 crore have been issued in all cases, wherever due.  Other Refunds are under process.

        RM/KMN