The lending under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) would continue beyond March 2022 till December 2024. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today has approved the continuation of PM SVANidhi.

The focus would be on enhanced collateral free affordable loan corpus and increased adoption of digital transactions. It would help Street Vendors to start or run their business again.

Through the Scheme, affordable collateral-free loans would be provided to the Street Vendors. The Scheme had envisaged loans of Rs. 5,000 crore. Today’s approval has increased the loan amount to Rs. 8,100 crore. This would benefit more street vendors and their families.

The budget for promotion of digital payments including cashback to the vendors has also been enhanced. The approval is expected to benefit nearly 1.2 crore citizens of Urban India.

Under PM SVANidhi, significant achievements have already been made. As on April 25, 2022, 31.9 lakh loans have been sanctioned and 29.6 lakh loans amounting to Rs. 2,931 crore have been disbursed. As regards 2nd loan, 2.3 lakh loans have been sanctioned and 1.9 lakh loans amounting to Rs.385 crore have been disbursed.

The beneficiary Street Vendors have conducted more than 13.5 crore digital transactions and have been given a cashback of Rs.10 crore. An amount of Rs.51 crore has been paid as Interest Subsidy.

The scheme was launched to give relief to the street vendors during the corona pandemic. Even now the situation is not completely under control and small businesses are still struggling. This is the reason for extending the scheme.

The extension of lending till December 2024, would assist in institutionalizing the access to formal credit channels and provide an assured source of credit to help them plan their business expansion. It would also increase the use of digital transactions and reduce the impact of potential NPAs on the Lending Institutions. Besides, it would also provide  much needed succor to the  Street Vendors and their families.