The Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM-SVANidhi) scheme has so far received more than 2.6 lakh application and 64,000 loans have been sanctioned of which 5,500 have already been disbursed.
The scheme was launched on June 1 this year targeted at street vendors and businesses to facilitate collateral free working capital loan up to ₹10,000 for one year. The scheme was announced as part of the 2nd tranche of announcements made under Atmanirbhar Bharat. It will benefit vendors, hawkers, cart vendors, and people involved in goods and services related to textiles, apparel, artisan products, laundry services, barbers shops, etc. On timely/early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy of 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through direct benefit transfer on a six monthly basis and also makes one eligible for a higher term loan of ₹20000.
This scheme will help in bringing the street vendors and micro/small business under the formal financial system.
A mobile app for the lending institutions and their field functionaries was also launched this month.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the implementation of the PM-SVANidhi scheme launched by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs earlier in June. He expressed satisfaction on the use of end-to-end IT technology through the use of a web portal and mobile app that will ensure transparency, accountability and speed.
Prime Minister Modi called for encouraging the use of end-to-end digital transactions by street vendors for their business purposes ranging from procurement of raw material to sales and train them on the same. “Use of digital payments would also help build a credit profile for the street vendor helping them in future financial needs,” he said.
He also said that the scheme should not only be seen through the prism of extending loan facility but also as an outreach programme for the holistic development and economic upliftment of street vendors. He said that the socio-economic data captured through the scheme could be used by other ministries to provide for other schemes like PM Awas Yojana (housing), Ujjwala Yojana (LPG gas), Saubhagya (electricity), etc.