Canara Bank announces 3 loan schemes amid fight against COVID-19

New Delhi: State-run Canara Bank on Friday announced three loan schemes as part of the fight against the pandemic under which it will offer healthcare credit, business and personal loan to individuals.

The Canara Chikitsa healthcare credit facility will offer loans from over Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 crore to registered hospitals, nursing homes, medical practitioners, diagnostic centres, pathology labs and all other units engaged in the servicing healthcare infrastructure.

The loan to be offered at a concessional rate of interest will have tenor of 10 years with moratorium up to 18 months, Canara Bank said in an advertisement.

The Canara Jeevanrekha healthcare business loan will offer loan up to Rs 2 crore at a concessional interest rate for manufacture and supply of healthcare products such as medical oxygen and oxygen cylinders and oxygen concentrators to registered hospitals and nursing homes or other manufacturers and suppliers.

Canara Bank said there will be no processing fee for this loan. For micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), there will be no collateral security, which the lender will cover under Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), and the bank will bear the guarantee premium.

CGTMSE is meant to provide financial assistance to such kinds of industries without any third party guarantee or collateral.

For non-MSMEs, the collateral security will be minimum 25 per cent.

Canara Chikitsa and Canara Jeevanrekha loan schemes will be valid till March 31, 2022.

Under the third category of loan — Canara Suraksha personal loan scheme — the lender will offer loan from Rs 25,000 – Rs 5 lakh as immediate financial assistance to customers for COVID-19 treatment during admission or post discharge.

The scheme will offer moratorium of six months. Coming at a nil processing fee, the scheme will be valid till September 30, 2021.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a Rs 50,000-crore special window to banks to lend to vaccine makers, hospitals and COVID-related health infrastructure.

It also allowed individual and small borrowers more time to repay their debt, aimed at providing financial support when the economy is hit by the repercussions of the pandemic.

According to ratings firm Crisil, banks are expected to lend for healthcare activities below the current rates of lending, courtesy the scheme, which entails loans being available to banks at repo rate till March 2022 which are to be utilised for onlending and also earn a priority sector lending classification.