PM-SVANidhi

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the continuation of lending under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) beyond March 2022 till December 2024, with focus on enhanced collateral free affordable loan corpus, increased adoption of digital transactions and holistic socio-economic development of the Street Vendors and their families.

Beneficiaries –

• Over 1.2 crore people, including vendors, hawkers, thelewalas, rehriwala, theliphadwala etc. in different areas/ contexts are likely to benefit from this scheme.
• The goods supplied by them range from vegetables, fruits, ready-to-eat street foods, tea, pakodas, breads, eggs, textiles, apparel, footwear, artisan products, books/ stationaries etc.
• The services include barber shops, cobblers, pan shops, laundry services etc.

What is the scheme?

• The vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
• On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on six monthly basis. There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan.
• The scheme provides for escalation of the credit limit on timely/ early repayment of loan to help the vendor achieve his ambition of going up on the economic ladder.
• It is for the first time that MFIs/ NBFCs/ SHG Banks have been allowed in a scheme for the urban poor due to their ground level presence and proximity to the urban poor including the street vendors.
• SIDBI will be the ministry”s technical partner for implementation of this scheme.

Implementation –

To ensure effective delivery and transparency, a digital platform with web portal/ mobile app has been developed to administer the scheme with end-to-end solution. The IT platform has also helped in integrating the vendors into the formal financial system. This platform integrated the web portal/ mobile app with UdyamiMitra portal of SIDBI for credit management and PAiSA portal of MoHUA to administer interest subsidy automatically.

Performance of the scheme –

• 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.