Banks to offer `5L Covid loan
Public sector banks on Sunday announced that they would be offering unsecured personal loans of upto Rs 5 lakh to salaried, non-salaried as well as pensioners to meet the treatment cost for
Covid-19 at a concessional rate.
The banks also announced new loan schemes for hospitals/dispensaries, vaccine manufacturers, oxygen and ventilator manufacturers and suppliers, importers of vaccines and Covid-related drugs logistics firms.
Loans extended under the above schemes would form part of the Covid loan book under the guidelines issued by the central bank this month and are under priority sector lending.
Addressing a joint press conference, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Dinesh Khara, Indian Banks Association (IBA) chairman Rajkiran Rai and IBA chief executive Sunil Mehta announced various support measures and launch of three new loan products by all nationalised banks to mitigate the impact from the pandemic resurgence.
Khara said, “Individuals, including salaried, nonsalaried and pensioners, can avail of unsecured personal loans from Rs 25,000 to Rs 5 lakh to meet Covid19 treatment. The repayment tenure would be five years. SBI would charge interest of 8.5 per cent per annum while other banks are free to decide interest rate.”
The PSBs have also offered to provide upto Rs
2 crore as healthcare business loan for setting up oxygen plant along with power backup system to existing hospitals, nursing homes under the government’s Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECGLS.) The loan tenure is of five years. Capped at an interest rate of 7.5 per cent these loans are backed by 100 per cent guarantee cover of the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC) under ECLGS
4.0, which was announced by the government on Sunday. The third product is a business loan for healthcare facilities up to Rs 100 crore to setup/ expand healthcare infrastructure and to manufacturers of healthcare products at a concessional rate.
The government has announced modifications to the ECLGS by enlarging the scheme’s scope. The validity of ECLGS has
their been extended to September 30, 2021 and disbursement is permitted up to December 31, 2021.
Similarly, to address the disruptions caused by the resurgence of Covid pandemic, the Reserve Bank of India on May 5 announced several measures, including a term liquidity facility of Rs 50,000 crore to Ease Access to Emergency Health Services (Covid Loan Book) such as resolution framework 2.0 for Covid related stressed assets of individuals, small businesses and MSMEs, reassessment of working capital limits, etc.
While the economy had revived well from the beginning of fourth quarter of FY21, the pandemic’s resurgence from April 21 has impacted the lives of individuals, and cash flows of businesses and MSMEs.
“In regard to Resolution framework 2.0, PSBs have formulated a templated approach for restructuring of loans,” a release from SBI and IBA said.