Bengaluru: With a view to helping out street vendors and improving their financial prospects, the Union government has sanctioned Rs 23 lakh loans. Out of it, Rs 18.54 lakh has been disbursed to the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors, Atma Nirbhar Nidhi Scheme (PM SVANidhi).

Information on this was provided by Anurag Singh Thakur, Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Monday, Swarajya notes. 

It might be noted that the project was started under the ministry of housing and urban affairs in June 2020. 

The objective was, it might be reiterated, to facilitate collateral free working capital loan up to Rs 10,000 of one year tenure, to about 50 lakh street vendors across the country whose businesses had been adversely affected due to lockdown.

The scheme also provides for incentives in the form of interest subsidy of seven per cent per annum on regular repayment of loan and cash-back reward up to Rs 100 per month on undertaking prescribed digital transactions.

On timely or early repayment, the vendors are eligible for enhanced working capital loan during the next cycle.

The website notes that the scheme further provides for socio-economic profiling of beneficiaries and their families to determine their eligibility for various central government welfare schemes and link them to these schemes.

It also aims to facilitate beneficiary street food vendors to on-board e-commerce platforms for food delivery.