91 lakh guarantees issued till Jan 25 under ECLG scheme: Nitin Gadkari

MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee (ECLG) Scheme, around 91 lakh guarantees have been issued till January 25 this year.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, he said during the current financial year (April-December), a total number of 31,923 units were setup under the ongoing Prime Minister Employment Generation programme (PMEGP) and 5,21,746 guarantees were issued under another ongoing scheme - Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises.

"Under Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, around 91 lakh guarantees have been issued till 25.01.2021," he said.

The government has announced several measures under Aatmanirbhar Bharat package to increase availability of credit to the MSME sector which include ₹3 lakh crore collateral free automatic loans for business, including MSMEs under Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).

Replying to a separate question, Gadkari said that the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), has created a Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) with a corpus of ₹10,000 crore.

"As on December 1, 2020, investment of Rs. 4509.16 crore has been made in 384 Start-ups," he said.