Banks had sanctioned loans worth Rs 11,168 crore to about 2 lakh borrowers under the Credit Outreach Programme, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. 

Under this programme, banks have been holding special camps across various parts of the country to sanction loans to eligible borrowers according to the prudential norms. 

Most of the banks have announced festival offers at concessional rates of interest and waived processing charges. 

“During her review of PSBs (public sector banks) in Aug, Smt @nsitharaman had exhorted banks to conduct Credit Outreach Programme in Oct to support revival of economic growth. In line with this, banks have been holding district-wise & sector-wise loan outreach programmes,” a tweet by the Finance Minister’s Office said today. 

The loans under the Credit Outreach Programme were over and above those sanctioned and disbursed under the various Central government loan guarantee schemes, the ministry added. 

According to the data shared by the Finance Ministry, as much as Rs 6,268 crore of business loans were sanctioned to about 1 lakh beneficiaries, while vehicle loans worth Rs 448 crore were sanctioned to 5,058 borrowers. Housing loans worth Rs 762 crore were sanctioned to 3,401 borrowers as of October 20, 2021. 

Similar outreach programmes were held between October 2019 and March 2021 by banks and had fulfilled all kinds of credit requirements of the RAM (Retail, Agriculture and MSME) sector. The Finance Ministry said that Rs 4.94 lakh crore were distributed under the outreach programmes. 

This Credit Outreach Programme, through co-lending arrangements between banks and NBFCs and the fintech sector, would extend loans at affordable interest rates to smaller borrowers this festive season, it said.