Canara Bank has announced credit support for all its borrowers who have been affected by the COVID-19.

The ‘Canara Credit Support’ is extended as a quick and hassle-free loan to overcome temporary liquidity mismatches for payment of statutory dues, salary/wages/electricity bill, rent etc., the bank said in a statement.

The statement further added that the bank has since sanctioned nearly 6 lakh loans amounting to Rs 4300 crore under agriculture, SHGs and retail categories.

With an aim to reach out to the eligible borrowers, the bank has employed various strategies like SMS, call centres, emails and personal calls, explaining the facility in order to sanction the loan.

Other than this, the bank has also sanctioned more than Rs 60,000 crore of advances to corporates and MSMEs from March 2020 till date.

“We are sure that once the lockdown is completely lifted, our customers would be able to avail the sanctioned facilities to the full extent and improve their business,”Canara Bank’s MD and CEO, L V Prabhakar, said.

The government has announced emergency credit line of 20 per cent of the outstanding credit as on February 29 to MSME borrowers having Rs 25 crore outstanding with an annual turnover up to Rs 100 crore. The credit line is 100 per cent guaranteed by the Central government. The facility can be availed up to October 31 at the convenience of the borrower and as per the terms and conditions.

All standard accounts including SMA 0 and SMA 1 are eligible to avail this facility. About 10 per cent of existing fund based working capital limits or Rs 150 crore whichever is lower is extended under this facility. This limit is over and above the eligible maximum permissible bank finance to the unit. The facility is given for a period of 24 months with 6 months moratorium. The loans are priced very competitively with no processing charges, no margin and no additional security.

Apart from the above facility, as per RBI regulatory package on COVID-19, moratorium has been extended on payment of all instalments for term loans falling due between March 1 to August 31.

In respect of the Working Capital facilities sanctioned in the form of Cash Credit/Overdraft, interest payment has been deferred up to August 31. In order to ameliorate the difficulties of the borrowers in repaying the accumulated interest, borrowers can convert the accumulated interest to a Funded Interest Term Loan payable by March 31.