Educational loans amounting to Rs 1,105 crore have been offered to around 38,000 students under the Students Credit Card scheme till now and another 21,000 students would be included in this scheme by 31 December, said chief adviser to chief minister and the finance department Amit Mitra at Nabanna today.

If things go as planned then the Students Credit Card scheme will have 80,000 beneficiaries by 15 January, Mr Mitra added. “Since inception 37,782 students have received the credit cards to avail educational loans of upto Rs 10 lakh with an interest rate of 4 per cent. The total sanction amount is Rs 1105 crore. But the rejection rate in this scheme has been quite high. Our officers have checked and found out that the applications of around 21,000 students have all the necessary documents and so we requested the banks to consider those.

Following which, the banks have assured us that credit cards will be given to these 21,000 students,” said Mr Mitra after holding the State Level Bankers’ Committee meeting. In view of the high rejection rate of loan application of weavers and artisans under the Weavers and Artisans Credit Card scheme, the Bengal government will urge the Centre to change their criteria so as to enable these people to avail loans. According to the Centre’s directive, PAN card is mandatory for weavers and artisans to avail loans. “Many artisans and weavers are very poor and it is impossible for them to possess PAN cards. In such a situation, their loan applications are rejected.

We will take this up with the Centre and also write to the RBI. We will request the Centre to change their criteria. The Centre is unaware of the grassroot level problems as a result of which the poor weavers and artisans are suffering,” said Mr Mitra. Till the issue is resolved, the state officers will assist the weavers and artisans so that they can avail loans and the bank officials have also agreed to cooperate, added Mr Mitra. Elaborating on the success of MSMEs in availing loans, Mr Mitra said that a loan disbursement target of Rs 1,10,178 crore was given for the MSME sector to the banks of which Rs 70,667 crore has already been achieved in the last six months. Mr Mitra further claimed 100 per cent success of the Duare Sarkar scheme in the ongoing phase in connection to opening of new accounts in banks.

“During this phase, 25,502 applications were received in the camps for opening new accounts of which 24,462 accounts have already been opened. The response of the banks has been very good,” he said. At the meeting, the state government insisted the banks introduce a ‘doorstep banking’ facility for verifying the credentials for issuing the life certificate of pensioners. “It is very inconvenient for pensioners to participate in video conferences in order to verify their credentials if they are unable to physically visit the branch.

RBI already has a directive of doorstep banking for pensioners and we urged the banks to follow it. Around 100 banks have agreed to visit the residences of the pensioners,” said Mr Mitra. This apart, the state government has also urged the banks to simplify the KYC process so that by submitting the KYC form in one bank it will automatically be updated in the other banks of that account-holder.