Prasenjit Chakraborty - Mumbai The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced a separate liquidity window of INR 15,000 crore to mitigate the adverse impact of the second COVID-19 wave on certain contact-intensive sectors, reports Trisha Medhi for YourStory.
The window will remain open till March 31, 2022, with tenors of up to three years at the repo rate, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in Mumbai after a meeting of the monetary policy committee.
Announcing the on-tap Liquidity Window for Contact-intensive Sectors, he said that banks can provide support to hotels and restaurants, tourism, aviation support services, and other services under this programme.
Under the scheme, banks can provide fresh lending support to hotels and restaurants; tourism – travel agents, tour operators, and adventure/heritage facilities; aviation ancillary services – ground handling and supply chain; and other services that include private bus operators, car repair services, rent-a-car service providers, event/conference organisers, spa clinics, and beauty parlours/salons.
Further, an additional INR 16,000 crore funding has been earmarked for SIDBI for lending to MSMEs, directly or indirectly over and above the quantum of INR 50,000 crore, which was set aside for government financial institutions in the April policy.
To provide further relief to the businesses hit by COVID 2.0, the newly announced restructuring window has been extended for all entities, with outstanding credit of INR 50 crore.
