MUDRA loan disbursals take a hit due to demonetisation

Loan disbursals by Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) slowed down in the third quarter of current financial year following the demonetisation of high-value currencies, an official said today.

"We have disbursed Rs 80,000 crore (from April 1 to December 31, 2016). There have been some lull during the last two months because of currency exchanges and those kind of things," Jiji Mammen, CEO of MUDRA, said.

"Otherwise, we would have reached much more than this (disbursal figure), Mammen said.

He was talking to reporters here on the sidelines of a function, where a portal of industry body ASSOCHAM to provide online access of funds to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) was launched.

Asked if he is confident of reaching the disbursal target of Rs 1.8 lakh crore for FY17, Mammen replied in the positive.

"We are hopeful. We will wait and watch how things shape up," he said and noted that loan sanction is generally "extremely well" in the last quarter.

The agency was established by the Modi Government with an initial corpus of Rs 5,000 crore to provide capital to all banks seeking refinancing of small business loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY).

PMMY loans fall into three categories - Shishu (up to Rs 50,000), Kishore (Rs 50,000-Rs 5 lakh) and Tarun (Rs 5-10 lakh).