PM reviews micro credit scheme for street vendors

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reviewed the implementation of a special micro-credit facility for street vendors, stressing that it should not be seen from the perspective of extending loans to them but as part of an outreach for their holistic development and economic upliftment.

The PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) aims at facilitating a collateral-free working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 of one-year tenure, to help street vendors resume their businesses post lockdown.

The review meet was informed that over 2.6 lakh applications have been received, over 64,000 have been sanctioned and over 5,500 have been disbursed.

The prime minister expressed satisfaction on the use of end-to-end IT solution through a web-portal and mobile application for administration of the scheme to ensure transparency, accountability and speed, an official statement said.

While noting that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is working on a complete IT solution, including mobile application, for seamless implementation of the scheme, the prime minister said that its design should incentivise the use of end-to-end digital transactions by the street vendors. This should cover the entire gamut of their business – from procurement of raw material to the collection of sale proceeds. Appropriate incentives and training should be held for the purpose. Use of digital payments would also help build a credit profile for the street vendor helping them in future financial needs, Modi observed.

He said that the scheme should not be just seen from the perspective of extending loans to street vendors. It should also be seen as a part of an outreach to the street vendors for their holistic development and economic uplift, the statement quoted Modi as saying.

One step in this direction would be by capturing their entire socio-economic details to facilitate necessary policy interventions. Such data could also be used by different central ministries to benefit them under various schemes for which they are eligible, on a priority basis.

These include housing under PMAY-U, cooking gas under Ujjawala, electricity under Saubhagya, health under Ayushman Bharat, skilling under DAY-NULM, and bank account under Jan Dhan scheme, the statement said.