The scheme will cover individuals as well as companies with an annual turnover upto ₹250 crore

The Union Finance Ministry on Saturday increased the annual turnover ceiling of companies that could avail loans under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to ₹250 crore from ₹100 crore at present, according to a Livemint report.

The maximum amount of loans that can be availed under the scheme has also been increased to ₹10 crore from ₹5 crore.

According to Livemint’s report, individuals can now also avail themselves of ECLGS if they already had loans for business purposes and subject to the condition that they fulfill eligibility criteria.

Allowing loans for larger MSMEs and professionals for business purposes within the ambit of ECLGS, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the expansion of the scheme to include individual loans for working capital purposes and larger MSMEs is likely to boost credit offtake by ₹1 trillion within the overall ceiling of ₹3 trillion for the scheme.

As of 29 July, ₹1.4 trillion had been sanctioned under the scheme while ₹87,227 crore worth of loans disbursed, the report says.

ECLGS was announced as a part of the government’s ₹20 trillion financial package to help the poor and small businesses to tide over the crises that followed after the coronavirus pandemic and its resultant lockdown.

Read the complete report in Livemint