YoY bank credit to MSMEs in June highest in Q1 but deployment to manufacturing units remained negative

Credit and Finance for MSMEs: Deployment of gross bank credit by banks to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in June was up 6.5 per cent to Rs 11.32 lakh crore (highest in Q1 FY21) from Rs 10.62 lakh crore a year ago period, data from the Reserve Bank of India showed. However, this was down 1.5 per cent in the current financial year so far from Rs 11.49 lakh crore deployed to MSEs as on March 27, 2020. The deployment in the preceding month of May 2020 at Rs 10.77 lakh crore was 1.5 per cent more from Rs 10.62 lakh crore in May 2019 while for April 2020 the growth was 3.3 per cent to Rs 11 lakh crore from April 2019, according to the data published in the RBI’s August bulletin.

While the overall deployment to MSEs continued to be in plus, the credit deployed to MSEs in the manufacturing sector particularly retained the negative growth. From Rs 3.66 lakh crore in June 2019, manufacturing MSEs were able to raise Rs 3.52 crore in June 2020 witnessing contraction of 3.7 per cent year-on-year. The contraction has only widened from minus 2.2 per cent in April this year to minus 3.4 per cent in May on a year-on-year basis.

In contrast, MSEs in the services sector witnessed a sharp growth in credit deployment from banks. From 4 per cent year-on-year growth in May 2020, June saw 11.9 per cent growth from the year-ago period. Services MSEs secured Rs 7.79 lakh crore in June 2020 up from Rs 6.96 lakh crore in June 2019. The bank credit raised in April and May 2020 by services MSEs was Rs 7.42 lakh crore and Rs 7.24 lakh crore respectively.

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The growth in overall credit to MSEs came amid the need for credit perhaps more than ever as small businesses have been looking to recover from the Covid impact and lockdown. The flagship scheme by the government launched in May this year for small businesses as part of the Rs 20 lakh crore Atmanirbhar package was Rs 3 lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) that expects 45 lakh businesses to benefit from it.

According to the data shared by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s office last week, 32.8 per cent (Rs 98.665.93 crore) of the committed amount has been disbursed in 22,77,463 MSME loan accounts, as of August 12. 12 public sector banks with a share of 55.4 per cent (Rs 54,677.11 crore) and 24 private banks and 31 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) with a share of 44.5 per cent (Rs 43,988.82 crore) disbursement the amount out of the sanctioned amount of Rs 1,43,318.09 crore.