Coimbatore: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Centre was aiming to achieve a ‘saturation level,’ where every eligible member was given loans through banks under various government schemes.
Speaking at the Credit Outreach Programme in the city on Tuesday, she said the government had reached the saturation level in the 100-odd ‘aspirational districts’ across the country, including Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu.
Sitharaman said the government has taken the initiative forward by aiming to achieve the same at the block level. For this, the Centre has identified 500 aspirational blocks across the country, including blocks in Coimbatore district.
“At the block level, we are making efforts to see if all the eligible people are getting loans through banks. In Coimbatore, the effort started in August,” she said.
As a result of the effort, she said more than one lakh beneficiaries have been identified and were being disbursed loans during the event under various schemes.
The beneficiaries include MSMEs, farmers, self-help groups, livestock farmers, fishermen, roadside vendors and entrepreneurs. Reeling out statistics, she said 23,800 people are being given retail loans to the tune of ₹1,278 crore, while Mudra loan of about ₹25 crore was given to 2,904 people and about 7,900 roadside vendors are given collateral-free loans. “In all, a sum of ₹3,749 crore was being disbursed as loans in Coimbatore district alone,” she said.
Refuting the charges that the Centre was not sharing the tax benefits to the states, she said the Centre has been sharing the taxes as well as cess with state governments.
During the event, a businessman identifying himself as Sathish from Saibaba Colony said that he was being denied loans by a bank. Sitharaman asked him to come on stage and explain his charge.
After Sathish narrated his case on stage, Sitharaman said she would look into the issue. BJP leader Vanathi Srinivasan, Canara Bank managing director and CEO K Satyanarayana Raju, NABARD chairman KV Shaji, SIDBI chairman and managing director Sivasubramanian Ramann were present.
Earlier in the day, she interacted with students of PSGR Krishnammal College, Coimbatore Corporation Girls Higher Secondary School and Gopal Naidu Higher Secondary School. The finance minister gifted a model of Chandrayaan-3 to the students at Gopal Naidu school.
During an interactive session with students of Krishnammal College, Sitharaman said it was science and not politics behind the multiple I-T searches in the country. She said data analytics using artificial intelligence was helping the country in detecting economic offences. Thanks to AI, tax evasions and illegal transactions were being detected, which has resulted in multiple income tax raids at various places, she said.
She also visited the Codissia Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre. A new branch of the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) was inaugurated during the day by Sitharman.
Speaking at the Credit Outreach Programme in the city on Tuesday, she said the government had reached the saturation level in the 100-odd ‘aspirational districts’ across the country, including Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu.
Sitharaman said the government has taken the initiative forward by aiming to achieve the same at the block level. For this, the Centre has identified 500 aspirational blocks across the country, including blocks in Coimbatore district.
“At the block level, we are making efforts to see if all the eligible people are getting loans through banks. In Coimbatore, the effort started in August,” she said.
As a result of the effort, she said more than one lakh beneficiaries have been identified and were being disbursed loans during the event under various schemes.
The beneficiaries include MSMEs, farmers, self-help groups, livestock farmers, fishermen, roadside vendors and entrepreneurs. Reeling out statistics, she said 23,800 people are being given retail loans to the tune of ₹1,278 crore, while Mudra loan of about ₹25 crore was given to 2,904 people and about 7,900 roadside vendors are given collateral-free loans. “In all, a sum of ₹3,749 crore was being disbursed as loans in Coimbatore district alone,” she said.
Refuting the charges that the Centre was not sharing the tax benefits to the states, she said the Centre has been sharing the taxes as well as cess with state governments.
During the event, a businessman identifying himself as Sathish from Saibaba Colony said that he was being denied loans by a bank. Sitharaman asked him to come on stage and explain his charge.
After Sathish narrated his case on stage, Sitharaman said she would look into the issue. BJP leader Vanathi Srinivasan, Canara Bank managing director and CEO K Satyanarayana Raju, NABARD chairman KV Shaji, SIDBI chairman and managing director Sivasubramanian Ramann were present.
Earlier in the day, she interacted with students of PSGR Krishnammal College, Coimbatore Corporation Girls Higher Secondary School and Gopal Naidu Higher Secondary School. The finance minister gifted a model of Chandrayaan-3 to the students at Gopal Naidu school.
During an interactive session with students of Krishnammal College, Sitharaman said it was science and not politics behind the multiple I-T searches in the country. She said data analytics using artificial intelligence was helping the country in detecting economic offences. Thanks to AI, tax evasions and illegal transactions were being detected, which has resulted in multiple income tax raids at various places, she said.
She also visited the Codissia Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre. A new branch of the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) was inaugurated during the day by Sitharman.
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