Governance
Context: Recently the Government of India has extended the PM Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme beyond March, 2022.
About PM SVANIDHI:
- Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs launched a scheme PM Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) to empower Street Vendors by not only extending loans to them, but also for their holistic development and economic upliftment.
- The scheme intends to facilitate collateral free working capital loans of up to INR10,000/- of one-year tenure, to approximately 50 lakh street vendors, to help resume their businesses in the urban areas, including surrounding peri-urban/rural areas.
The PM SVANidhi scheme offers incentives in the form of:
- interest subsidy @ 7% per annum on regular repayment of loan
- cashback upto INR1200/- per annum on undertaking prescribed digital transactions
- eligibility for enhanced next tranche of loans
- Close to 2 million applications have been received under this scheme, of which 752191 have been sanctioned, and 218751 loans have already been disbursed.
Eligibility Criteria: The PM SVANidhi scheme is available to all street vendors who are engaged in vending in urban areas as on or before March 24, 2020. The eligible vendors are identified as per following criteria:
- Street vendors in possession of Certificate of Vending/Identity Card issued by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
- The vendors, who have been identified in the survey but have not been issued Certificate of Vending/Identity Card; Provisional Certificate of Vending would be generated for such vendors through an IT based Platform.
- ULBs are encouraged to issue such vendors the permanent Certificate of Vending and Identification Card immediately and positively within a period of one month
- Street Vendors, left out of the ULB led identification survey or who have started vending after completion of the survey and have been issued Letter of Recommendation (LoR) to that effect by the ULB/Town Vending Committee (TVC).
- The vendors of surrounding development/peri-urban/rural areas vending in the geographical limits of the ULBs and have been issued Letter of Recommendation (LoR) to that effect by the ULB/TVC.
About New Extension:
- Extension of lending period till December 2024;
- Introduction of 3rd loan of upto ₹50,000 in addition to 1st & 2nd loans of ₹10,000 and ₹20,000 respectively.
- To extend ‘SVANidhi Se Samriddhi’ component for all beneficiaries of PM SVANidhi scheme across the country.
Source: PIB
