IGI Logo

With an effort towards holistic socio-economic development of the Street Vendors and their families, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the continuation of lending under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) beyond March 2022 till December 2024. The Scheme aims to focus on enhanced collateral free affordable loan corpus and increased adoption of digital transactions.

Through the Scheme, affordable collateral-free loans are being facilitated to the Street Vendors. The Scheme had envisaged to facilitate loans for an amount of Rs. 5,000 crore. But this approval has increased the loan amount to Rs. 8,100 crore, thereby providing the Street vendors working capital to further expand their business and making them AtmaNirbhar.

Besides, the budget for promotion of digital payments including cashback to the vendors has also been enhanced. The approval is expected to benefit nearly 1.2 crore citizens of Urban India. The proposed extension of the Scheme has been necessitated as the circumstances that led to the launch of the Scheme in June 2020 i.e. the pandemic and related stress on the small businesses, have not fully retracted.

The extension of lending till December 2024, would assist in institutionalizing the access to formal credit channels, provide an assured source of credit to help them plan their business expansion, increasing the adoption of digital transactions, reducing the impact of potential NPAs on the Lending Institutions and providing holistic socio-economic upliftment for the Street Vendors and their families.