The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will launch the Micro
Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd. (MUDRA) - a Bank tomorrow at a
function at Vigyan Bhavan in the national capital.
Earlier in his Budget Speech for Financial Year (FY) 2015-16, the Union
Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley had proposed the creation of a Micro Units
Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, with a corpus of Rs.20,000 crore,
and credit guarantee corpus of Rs.3,000 crore. MUDRA, to be set up through a
statutory enactment, would be responsible for developing and refinancing through
a Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, all Micro-finance Institutions (MFIs) which are
in the business of lending to micro / small business entities engaged in
manufacturing, trading and service activities. MUDRA would also partner with State/Regional
level coordinators to provide finance to Last Mile Financiers of small/micro
business enterprises. Further, the approach goes beyond credit only approach
and offers a credit – plus solution for these enterprises spread across the
country. The roles envisaged for MUDRA would include:
·
Laying down policy guidelines for micro enterprise
financing business
·
Registration of MFI entities
·
Accreditation /rating of MFI entities
·
Laying down responsible financing practices to ward off
over indebtedness and ensure proper client protection principles and methods of
recovery
·
Development of standardised set of covenants governing last
mile lending to micro enterprises
·
Promoting right technology solutions for the last mile
·
Formulating and running a Credit Guarantee scheme for
providing guarantees to the loans/portfolios which are being extended to micro
enterprises
·
Support development & promotional activities in the
sector
·
Creating a good architecture of Last Mile Credit Delivery
to micro businesses under the scheme of Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana
These measures to be taken up by MUDRA are targeted towards
mainstreaming young, educated or skilled workers and entrepreneurs including /women
entrepreneurs. The Government of India believes that development and growth have
to be inclusive. According to the NSSO Survey of 2013, there are some 5.77
crore small business units, mostly individual proprietorship, which run
manufacturing, trading or services activities. These encompass myriad of small
manufacturing units, shopkeepers, fruits / vegetable vendors, truck & taxi
operators, food-service units, repair shops, machine operators, small
industries, artisans, food processors, street vendors and many others. Most of
these ‘own account enterprises’ (OAE) are owned by people belonging to
Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Classes. The biggest
bottleneck in the growth of entrepreneurship in this sector is the lack of
financial support. A vast part of the non-corporate sector operates as
unregistered enterprises and formal or institutional architecture has not been
able to reach out to meet its financial requirements. Providing access to institutional
finance to such micro/small business units/enterprises will not only help in
improving the quality of life of these entrepreneurs but also turn them into
strong instruments of GDP growth and employment generation.
Since the enactment for MUDRA is likely to take some time, it is
proposed to initiate MUDRA as a unit of SIDBI to benefit from SIDBI’s
initiatives and expertise.
Products
and Offerings
The primary product of MUDRA will be refinance for lending to micro
businesses / units under the aegis of the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana. The
initial products and schemes under this umbrella have already been created and
the interventions have been named ‘Shishu’, ‘Kishor’ and ‘Tarun’ to signify the
stage of growth / development and funding needs of the beneficiary micro unit /
entrepreneur as also provide a reference point for the next phase of graduation
/ growth for the entrepreneur to aspire for:
·
Shishu: covering
loans upto Rs. 50,000/-
·
Kishor: covering
loans above Rs. 50,000/- and upto Rs. 5 lakh
·
Tarun: covering
loans above Rs. 5 lakh and upto Rs. 10 lakh
Businesses/entrepreneurs/units covered would include proprietorship/partnership
firms running as small manufacturing units, shopkeepers, fruits/vegetable
sellers, hair cutting saloon, beauty parlours, transporters, truck operators,
hawkers, co-operatives or body of individuals, food service units, repair shops,
machine operators, small industries, artisans, food processors, self help
groups, professionals and service providers etc. in rural and urban areas with
financing requirements upto Rs.10 lakh.
The products initially being launched are as under:
·
Sector/activity specific schemes, such as
schemes for business activities in Land Transport, Community, Social &
Personal Services, Food Product and Textile Product sectors. Schemes would
similarly be added for other sectors / activities.
·
Micro Credit Scheme (MCS)
·
Refinance Scheme for Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)
/ Scheduled Co-operative Banks
·
Mahila Uddyami Scheme
·
Business Loan for Traders & Shopkeepers
·
Missing Middle Credit Scheme
·
Equipment Finance for Micro Units
Credit
Plus Approach
MUDRA would also adopt a credit plus approach and take up interventions
for development support across the entire spectrum of beneficiary segments. The
highlights of such proposed interventions / initiatives are as under:
·
Supporting financial literacy
·
Promotion and Support of Grass Root Institutions
·
Creation of Framework for “Small Business
Finance Entities”
·
Synergies with National Rural Livelihoods
Mission
·
Synergies with National Skill Development
Corporation
·
Working with Credit Bureaus
·
Working with Rating Agencies
Other Proposed
Offerings: Going forward, offerings as
under are also envisaged:
·
MUDRA Card
·
Portfolio Credit Guarantee
·
Credit Enhancement
MUDRA will build on experiences of some of the existing players who
have demonstrated ability to cater to the Non Corporate Small Business segment
to build a financing architecture and right ecosystem for both the
entrepreneurs as well as the last mile financiers to the segment. Access to
finance in conjunction with rational price is going to be the unique customer
value proposition of MUDRA. The establishment of MUDRA would not only help in
increasing access of finance to the unbanked but also bring down the cost of
finance from the Last Mile Financiers to the informal micro / small enterprises
sector. The approach goes beyond credit only approach and offers a credit –
plus solution for these myriad micro enterprises, creating a complete ecosystem
spread across the country.
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DSM/KA