Advertisement

Credit deployment to MSMEs under the priority sector lending by scheduled commercial banks in February 2024 grew by 19.3 per cent to Rs 24.42 lakh crore from Rs 20.46 lakh crore in February 2023, according to the latest data on the monthly sectoral deployment released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday. Month-on-month, the deployment grew 1.2 per cent from Rs 24.12 lakh crore in January 2024.

The MSME credit deployed in February was 15.1 per cent of Rs 161.6 lakh crore in India’s total non-food credit during the month. 

Out of total MSME credit in February, Rs 19.62 lakh crore was deployed to micro and small enterprises (MSE), growing by 20 per cent from Rs 16.31 lakh crore deployed in February 2023. Likewise, credit to medium enterprises grew by 15.8 per cent to Rs 4.80 lakh crore from Rs 4.14 lakh crore during the year-ago period. 

Even as credit to MSMEs continues to scale, a survey by the industry body FICCI on SMEs involving 610 respondents in October last year had noted that collateral-free credit is only on papers and not implemented as banks provide loans only when collateral is offered by SMEs, FE Aspire had reported. 

To boost MSME credit, the survey called for cash-flow-based lending to replace lending based on physical assets as collateral with information-based system lending. 

SMEs have also been taking the IPO route to raise more capital other than debt despite geopolitical risks, rising interest rates, and volatile commodity prices. According to the Finance Ministry’s latest monthly economic review for February 2024 highlighting the growth in capital raised by SMEs and corporates, out of 345 companies listed on stock exchanges between April 2023 and February 2024, 179 were SMEs that raised Rs 5,381 crore. 

On the other hand, 68 were main board companies raising Rs 58,745 crore. As per data from the Prime 71 SMEs had raised Rs 979 crore in FY22 and 155 SMEs raised Rs 2,225 crore in FY18, FE Aspire had reported. 

Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/business/sme/msme-credit-jumps-19-to-rs-24-lakh-crore-in-february-under-priority-sector-lending-rbi-data/3439692/