Banks close door to entrepreneurs?
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 19 2019:
Apart from complaints regarding selection of beneficiaries under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) for the financial year 2018-19, many entrepreneurs who were recommended by DIC have been allegedly turned down by banks claiming that they don't have any money.
This has turned out to be a serious setback to many of the entrepreneurs and they have reportedly lost their patience as well as will to work.
It may be mentioned that the said scheme is taken up under Directorate of Khadi and Village Industries Commission, State Khadi and Village Industries Board, District Industries Centres and banks.
KVIC, KVIB and DIC send recommendations to the banks as per its annual targets.
According to a reliable source, the beneficiaries/entrepreneurs selected by KVIC are sent to banks for proper sponsorship in the form of loans.
The source explained that for rural areas, 65 percent will be loan amount and 35 percent will be grant amount while in the case of urban areas, 70 percent will be loan and 30 percent will be grant.
Under the said scheme, manufacturing sector can seek loans of up to Rs 25 lakh while those in business/service sector can avail loans of up to Rs 10 lakh, the source stated, adding that KVIC is the nodal agency of the scheme at the National level.
The source informed that for the current financial year 2018-19, KVIC fixed a target of 8 8 beneficiaries for Imphal West.
A total of around 600 entrepreneurs submitted applications from across the State out of which around 500 were selected.
As per the selection procedure of the scheme, the District PMEGP Task Force will select the eligible entrepreneurs from the applicants and recommend the selected applicants to banks.
The said task force is chaired by the DC concerned and also has many experts like Lead Bank Manager, DIC, KVIC, KVIB representatives as members, the source added.
The committee will select the eligible applicants based on their applications as well as after conducting a personal interview and the details of the beneficiaries like technical qualification, skill, past experience, geographical location etc are important while sending recommendations to the banks.
However, many quarters have raised serious concerns that despite proper conduct of personal interviews for Imphal West district, the whole process of selecting the beneficiaries seems to be rigged, the source claimed.
The source informed that 88 beneficiaries are to be selected for Imphal West district however, it is highly suspected that those candidates belonging to serial number 1 to 88 in the application forms have been selected for recommendation.
As such, interested and highly eligible entrepreneurs have been left out, unable to do anything, the source added.
On the other hand, it is being reported that many beneficiaries who were recommended by the DIC have been turned down by banks citing alleged lack of money.
Speaking to The Sangai Express, one of the said beneficiaries claimed that he was recommended to the bank by the DIC and he himself received a message on his mobile phone saying that he is now eligible for the scheme.
However, he alleged that when he went to the bank concerned, he was told that they (bank) cannot make any arrangements as the maximum number of beneficiaries had been exceeded.
He then claimed that his form was also withdrawn from the bank by DIC but till date, the DIC has failed to relay any kind of information to him.
This incongruity between the DIC and banks has evoked a serious question whether the implementing agencies have been resorting to reckless recommendation without properly analysing the capacity of providing loan by banks, the source said.
At the same time, there is a strong suspicion that the banks have been completely disregarding the recommendation of the State Government.
If these suspicions turn out to be true, the implementing agencies and the banks have transformed the scheme into a big joke, the source lamented.
Comment
