The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) was launched in May, 2020 as part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan to support eligible Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and business enterprises in meeting their operational liabilities and restarting their businesses. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Under the scheme, the Minister stated, 100% credit guarantee is extended to the lending institutions for loans extended by them under the scheme to eligible borrowers. The admissible guarantee limit under the scheme has been increased from Rs. 4.5 lakh crore to Rs. 5 lakh crore, with the additional guarantee cover of Rs. 50,000 crore earmarked exclusively for the Hospitality and related enterprises including Civil Aviation sector, the Minister stated.

Thus, the Minister stated, the recent credit support to domestic airlines has not resulted in a reduction of MSME’s share in the scheme. As on 30.11.2022, guarantees amounting to Rs 3.58 lakh crore have been issued under ECLGS, benefiting 1.19 crore borrowers.

The Minister further gave the share of MSMEs under ECLGS: 

	Share of MSME
Number of loans guaranteed	95.17%
Amount guaranteed	66.23%

As per inputs received from National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC), the agency operating the scheme, the details of loans given so far sector wise and State-wise, including Rajasthan are enclosed as ANNEXURE I and ANNEXURE II respectively, the Minister stated.

Giving more details, the Minister stated that most of the MSME borrowers have loans outstanding up to Rs. 50 crore. For this category of borrowers, the ECLGS scheme was an ‘opt out’ scheme, i.e. eligible support was to be provided by the lenders to such category of eligible borrowers, unless the MSME borrowers decided not to avail the support or were ineligible. Thus, the scheme was so designed that it was easily accessible and available to the MSMEs.

As per inputs received from NCGTC, the percentage of Non- Performing Assets (NPAs) under credit borrowed under the ECLGS scheme is as under:

Loan amount guaranteed (In Rs. cr)	NPA outstanding (Rs. cr)	NPA as percentage of loans guaranteed
3,58,894.27	13,964.58	3.89%
Source: NCGTC

As apprised by NCGTC, the details on Special Mention Account (SMA) in respect of credit borrowed under the ECLGS scheme, is not centrally maintained.

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RM/PPG/KMN

Credit guarantee extension under ECLGS preserves MSME share while expanding cover to hospitality and aviation sectors. The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme extends a 100% credit guarantee to lenders for loans to eligible MSMEs and businesses, with an increased admissible guarantee limit and an additional cover earmarked for Hospitality and Civil Aviation. The scheme operated largely as an opt-out mechanism for eligible MSMEs with most borrowers holding loans up to the stated threshold. The operating agency reports the issued guarantee amount, borrower coverage, the proportion of MSME loan counts and values, and an NPA ratio for ECLGS credit; centralised SMA data are not maintained.