New Delhi, December 3: With the prevailing economic slowdown in the country and crisis in the almost every sector, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday informed that public service banks (PSBs) disbursed as much as Rs 2.39 lakh crore credit in November to non-bank lenders, large and small businesses -- including MSMEs -- to increase the access of funds. The Union Minister also stated that the farmers were also disbursed credit to help tackle the economic crisis.

Informing about the success of the loan melas -- announced by the Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman in October first week -- the central ministry stated that PSBs conducted such outreach programmes across 374 districts in the country in October in two phases. During the programmes, the PSBs made a credit disbursement of Rs 2.52 lakh crore from the camps as well as the bank branches. Nirmala Sitharaman Quashes 'Liquidity Crunch' Reports After Meeting Private Bank CEOs, Announces Loan Outreach Programme in 250 Districts.

Earlier on August 30, Sitharaman had announced the mergers of PSBs into four big banks, following which the number of PSBs came down to 12 from 27 banks in 2017. Also, the Union Minister announced Rs 55,250 crore upfront capital infusion in the PSBs.

Elaborating more about the recent development in the finance sector, Sitharaman said in a statement, as quoted by livemint, "The strong outreach effort of PSBs has continued in November as well, with disbursement of Rs 2.39 lakh crore to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), NBFCs (Non-banking financial companies), corporates, retail and agriculture sector borrowers. This has raised the total disbursement by PSBs to these sectors since the launch of the customer outreach in October to Rs 4.91 lakh crore." Nirmala Sitharaman Asks Banks to Give Preference to Fresh Loan Applicants After Mergers Come Into Effect, Announces 200 Loan Melas.

As per to the Finance Ministry details, the PSBs or lenders disbursed Rs 35,775 crore to MSMEs in November, reaching the total customer outreach credit tally to Rs 72,985 crore since October. Considering the case of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), Centre informed that PSBs had disbursed Rs 25,525 crore in November, as compared to Rs 19,628 crore in October. Following this, the total customer outreach credit disbursal reached to Rs 45,153 crore.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 03, 2019 08:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).