Loans upto 1 Cr available for SC/ST & women entrepreneurs

January 16, 2021 168 Views No Comment

NSTFDC asks local entrepreneurs to avail ‘Stand-Up India’ scheme

Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 15

Director of National Scheduled Tribes Finance & Development Corporation (NSTFDC), Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Johny G Rengma, has urged upon the local entrepreneurs in the state to avail the ‘Stand-Up India’ scheme.

The scheme was introduced by the Government of India to finance SC/ST and women entrepreneurs.

Briefing mediapersons on January 15 on the objective and benefits of the ‘Stand-Up India’ scheme, the NSTFDC Director said due to lack of awareness of central schemes, many local entrepreneurs were not able to benefit from such schemes.

The objective of the ‘Stand-Up India’ scheme is to facilitate bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 Crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise. This enterprise may be in the manufacturing services or the trading sector. In case of non-individual enterprises, at least 51% of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held either by an SC/ST or woman entrepreneur.

Under the ‘Stand-Up India’ scheme, banks would provide composite loan of 75% of the project cost inclusive of term loan and working capital and the entrepreneur has to contribute 25% as margin money.

To further lighten the financial burden of the SC/ST and women entrepreneurs, Rengma informed that of the 25% margin money, NSTFDC was ready to bear 15% and so the entrepreneur has to cough up only 10%.

However, the 15% NSTFDC loan would be routed through the state’s agencies including Nagaland Industrial Development Corporation and Nagaland Co-operative Bank, he said.

“Our corporation has fund for conducting seminars and workshops and sales exhibitions for tribal entrepreneurs. These would be outright grants but routed through state agencies”, the Director said.

He informed that the application process for availing the scheme has been made quite simple: an entrepreneur has put up his or her project profile along with aadhaar card number, ST certificate and trade license (wherever applicable) and submit to any PSU banks.

Rengma, who is also the Vice President of the Tribal Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (TICCI), said if the applications and attached documents are in place, then there is no reason for banks to reject the loan.

He added that from 2021 onwards, the state chapters of TICCI, including Nagaland Chapter, would be engaged in various activities to promote tribal entrepreneurs. He advised aspiring and existing entrepreneurs to get in touch with TICCI Nagaland Chapter to get updates and details of various schemes aimed at promotion of tribal entrepreneurs.