The Finance Ministry, till last month, stated that the banks have sanctioned loans of Rs 1.77 lakh crore to 44.2 lakh business units under the Rs 3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector reeling under the slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

However, disbursement against the sanctioned amount stood at Rs 1,25,425 crore to 25.74 lakh MSME units till September 21.

The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs20-lakh crore Aatmanirbhar Bharat package announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in May to mitigate the distress caused by the lockdown due to COVID-19 by providing credit to different sectors, especially micro, smalland medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The latest numbers on ECLGS, as released by the ministry, comprise disbursements by all 12 public sector banks (PSBs), 24 private sector banks and 31 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

"As of 21 Sept 2020, the total amount sanctioned under the 100% Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme by PSBs and private banks to MSMEs and individuals stands at Rs 1,77,353 crore, of which Rs 1,25,425 crore has already been disbursed," the finance minister said in a tweet.

The ambit of the scheme was expanded to include MSMEs with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore and individuals for business purposes in August and included certain individual loans given to professionals like doctors, lawyers and chartered accountants for business purposes under its ambit.

As of September 21, 2020, Rs 9,849.74 crore of loans to 2.8 lakh individuals have been sanctioned, of which Rs 2,617.08 crore has been disbursed to 49,393 professionals.

To include more companies to take benefit of the scheme, the Finance Ministry increased the upper ceiling of the loan outstanding as on February 29 for being eligible under the scheme from Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore. The maximum amount of guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) funding under the scheme was also correspondingly increased from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore.

"Compared to 03 Sep 2020, there is an increase of Rs 16,335.32 crore in the cumulative amount of loans sanctioned & an increase of Rs 11,711.85 crore in the cumulative amount of loans disbursed by both #PSBs and private sector banks combined as on 21 Sep 2020," Sitharaman said.

The loan amounts sanctioned by the PSBs increased to Rs 79,347.73 crore, of which Rs 65,051.89 crore has been disbursed as of September 21, she said.

At the same time, private sector banks have sanctioned Rs 88,155 crore of loans and disbursed Rs 57,756 crore.

Market leader SBI has sanctioned Rs 24,632 crore of loans and disbursed Rs 19,748 crore. It is followed by Punjab National Bank with a sanctioned amount of Rs 10,677 crore.

On May 20, the Cabinet approved additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore at a concessional rate of 9.25 per cent through ECLGS for MSME sector.

Under the scheme, 100 per cent guarantee coverage will be provided by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore to eligible MSMEs and interested Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) borrowers in the form of a guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) facility.

For this purpose, a corpus of Rs 41,600 crore was set up by the government, spread over the current and next three financial years.

The scheme will be applicable to all loans sanctioned under GECL facility during the period from the date of announcement of the scheme to October 31 or till the amount of Rs 3 lakh crore is sanctioned under GECL, whichever is earlier.