PM SVANidhi scheme spares street vendors from clutches of money lenders, says Union Finance Minister

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave loan sanction orders to 1,247 street vendors in Virudhunagar district under PM SVANidhi scheme, providing cheap loans to empower the poor. The scheme also gives self-respect to beneficiaries, spares them from money lenders and offers incentives for digital transactions. Till Nov 13, 72.44 lakh loans worth ₹95,000 crore had been disbursed to 55 lakh street vendors in India, with 83% of target achieved in TN.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the PM SVANidhi scheme had been formulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the objective of providing cheap loans to street vendors up to the last beneficiary who required it.

Giving away PM SVANidhi loan sanction order to 1,247 street vendors to the tune of ₹1.71 crore in Virudhunagar district, she said the loan was a scheme for implementing the policies of entitlement and empowerment of the Centre. “The loans at cheaper rate of interest gives freedom to the poor and needy to pursue the trade of their choice and uplift themselves economically.”

The scheme gave self-respect to the beneficiaries who were hard working. It spared the poor vendors from being at the mercy of money lenders by given them loans at cheaper rate of interest. Those who got ₹10,000 loan in the first tranche would be given another loan of ₹20,000 in the second tranche and a loan of ₹50,000 in the third tranche. Though loans were given to 7,472 vendors in the first tranche, only 1,688 got the loan in the second round. Meanwhile, only a meagre 242 vendors got the loan disbursed in the third tranche in Virudhunagar district, she said.

Ms. Sitharaman wanted the municipalities to help identify street vendors so that the banks could generously give loans to them. “These street vendors are not only job creators, but also job givers,” she said.

Basic infrastructure such as roads, health facilities and power supply were required for the economic development of any district. “Even among developed States like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, a few districts did not show development on par with the growth of the States. Such districts were identified as aspirational districts and given special focus for growth.”

The Modi Government ensured that the fruits of welfare schemes of the Centre reached the beneficiaries without any pilferage by ensuring that every citizen had a bank account. “Their accounts were linked to Aadhaar card and updates of their accounts were sent through SMS on their mobile phones,” she said.

The beneficiaries were given sound boxes to ensure UPI payment done through digital transaction. The vendors were given an incentive of ₹1 per transaction for 100 digital transactions done in a month.