Major worries for micro credit: Vendors lukewarm to Central government assistance

Hyderabad: Most of the street vendors from Old City are not keen to seek loan provided under Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme. They say it's a lengthy process and the bank officials are not helping them out hence they are force to return empty handed.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Charminar zone (South zone) has identified as many as 7,530 street vendors but not even 1,000 vendors are eligible for applying loans as per the documentation required.

According to vendors, the procedure for applying loan is cumbersome due to requisite conditions like Aadhaar card must be linked with phone number and bank account. Most of them have not updated the KYC documentation and many have no bank accounts.

Mohammed Shaker, a vendor at Charminar, said he received the street vendor card last week from officials and also applied for loan online, but it has been pending for approval. "After applying for loan online, for the last four days he has been visiting the bank for loan approval but the bank management is not helping him so he had to return after waiting for hours." He said the government should it easy for us to apply for loans with less documentation. Shakeel, another vendor at Pathergatti, said, "He wanted to apply for loan but his Aadhaar card is not updated and not linked with phone number, moreover he doesn't have bank account." There are several such vendors who don't have the requisite documents for loan eligibility, he added.

In the southern part of the city, there are thousands of hawkers and around 3000 hawkers around Charminar Monument till Madina building itself. According to data by GHMC, the GHMC Charminar zone identified 7,530 street vendors till now in circle 5 of southern part of the city. In Charminar circle-9, GHMC had identified 2003 vendors and in Santosh Nagar circle 2,147. While, in Chandrayanagutta 1224 were identified and Falaknuma 856 and in Malakpet 1,300 vendors were identified till now and hardly 1,000 are eligible for loans.

"The project was started from July, and project officers started identifying the street vendors. In Charminar circle, 2003 vendors were identified and only 540 vendors had applied for loan in which 176 vendors applications had been eligible for applying loans and remaining are pending for documentation. Till now only 40 vendors had received loan amount from their respective banks in Circle-9," said MA Aleem Ahmed, Project Officer, UCD Charminar circle.

He said that most of the vendors are finding it difficult to apply for loans. The officers are creating awareness among them to apply for street vendor card to avail of the loan. He said, "GHMC identifies vendors and provides them street vendor cards after which they are eligible to apply for loan online and it should be approved by their respective bank management," he explained. Later, the officer appealed to the street vendors and hawkers to apply for loan and utilise the scheme started by central government.

About the scheme

This scheme will facilitate the street vendors to seek loans under the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme, launched by the central government. As a part of this scheme, each street vendor will be sanctioned a loan up to Rs 10,000 at an interest rate of seven per cent, which can be repaid in 12 equated monthly installments (EMI). The interest paid will be reimbursed under this scheme.

MAIN FEATURES

• To facilitate working capital loan up to `10,000 at subsidized rate of interest;

• To incentivise regular repayment of loan;

• To reward digital transactions;

• Interest subsidy on timely/ early repayment @ 7%;

• Monthly cash-back incentive on digital transactions

• Higher loan eligibility on timely repayment of first loan