RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced additional measures to counter the impact of pandemic.

In the fight against the second wave of Covod 19, alleviating any constraint from the financing side for all stake holders – government, hospitals and dispensaries, pharmacies, vaccine/medicine manufacturers/importers, medical oxygen manufacturers/suppliers, private operators engaged in the critical healthcare supply chain, and above all the common man who may be facing sudden spike in health expenditure – requires a comprehensive targeted policy response. Small businesses and financial entities at the grassroot level are bearing the biggest brunt of the second wave of infections. Against this backdrop and based on RBI’s continuing assessment of the macroeconomic situation and financial market conditions, RBI proposed to take further measures, as enumerated below:

Term Liquidity Facility of INR 50,000 crore to Ease Access to Emergency Health Services

To boost provision of immediate liquidity for ramping up COVID related healthcare infrastructure and services in the country, an on-tap liquidity window of INR 50,000 crore with tenors of up to three years at the repo rate is being opened till March 31, 2022.

Under the scheme, banks can provide fresh lending support to a wide range of entities including vaccine manufactures; importers/suppliers of vaccines and priority medical devices; hospitals/dispensaries; pathology labs; manufactures and suppliers of oxygen and ventilators; importers of vaccines and COVID related drugs; logistics firms and also patients for treatment.

Banks are being incentivised for quick delivery of credit under the scheme through extension of priority sector classification to such lending up to March 31, 2022. These loans will continue to be classified under priority sector till repayment or maturity, whichever is earlier. Banks may deliver these loans to borrowers directly or through intermediary financial entities regulated by the RBI. Banks are expected to create a COVID loan book under the scheme. By way of an additional incentive, such banks will be eligible to park their surplus liquidity up to the size of the COVID loan book with the RBI under the reverse repo window at a rate which is 25 bps lower than the repo rate or, termed in a different way, 40 bps higher than the reverse repo rate.

Also Read: RBI announces additional measures for MSME, Small businesses and Individuals

Special Long-Term Repo Operations (SLTRO) for Small Finance Banks (SFBs)

Small finance banks (SFBs) have been playing a prominent role by acting as a conduit for last mile supply of credit to individuals and small businesses. To provide further support to small business units, micro and small industries, and other unorganised sector entities adversely affected during the current wave of the pandemic, it has been decided to conduct special three-year long-term repo operations (SLTRO) of INR 10,000 crore at repo rate for the SFBs, to be deployed for fresh lending of up to INR 10 lakh per borrower. This facility will be available till October 31, 2021.

Lending by Small Finance Banks (SFBs) to MFIs for on-lending to be classified as Priority Sector Lending

At present, lending by Small Finance Banks (SFBs) to Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) for on-lending is not reckoned for Priority Sector Lending (PSL) classification. In view of the fresh challenges brought on by the pandemic and to address the emergent liquidity position of smaller MFIs, SFBs are now being permitted to reckon fresh lending to smaller MFIs (with asset size of up to INR 500 crore) for on-lending to individual borrowers as priority sector lending. This facility will be available up to March 31, 2022.

Credit to MSME Entrepreneurs

With a view to incentivise credit flow to the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) borrowers, in February 2021 Scheduled Commercial Banks were allowed to deduct credit disbursed to new MSME borrowers from their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) for calculation of the cash reserve ratio (CRR). In order to further incentivise inclusion of unbanked MSMEs into the banking system, this exemption currently available for exposures up to INR 25 lakh and for credit disbursed up to the fortnight ending October 1, 2021 is being extended till December 31, 2021.

Resolution Framework 2.0 for COVID Related Stressed Assets of Individuals, Small Businesses and MSMEs.

The resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic in India in recent weeks and the associated containment measures adopted at local/regional levels have created new uncertainties and impacted the nascent economic revival that was taking shape. In this environment the most vulnerable category of borrowers are individual borrowers, small businesses and MSMEs. The following set of measures are being announced today, specifically targeting these groups of borrowers.

(a) Borrowers i.e. individuals and small businesses and MSMEs having aggregate exposure of upto INR 25 crore and who have not availed restructuring under any of the earlier restructuring frameworks (including under the Resolution Framework 1.0 dated August 6, 2020), and who were classified as ‘Standard’ as on March 31, 2021 shall be eligible to be considered under Resolution Framework 2.0. Restructuring under the proposed framework may be invoked up to September 30, 2021 and shall have to be implemented within 90 days after invocation.

(b) In respect of individual borrowers and small businesses who have availed restructuring of their loans under Resolution Framework 1.0, where the resolution plan permitted moratorium of less than two years, lending institutions are being permitted to use this window to modify such plans to the extent of increasing the period of moratorium and/or extending the residual tenor up to a total of 2 years. Other conditions will remain the same.

(c) In respect of small businesses and MSMEs restructured earlier, lending institutions are also being permitted as a one-time measure, to review the working capital sanctioned limits, based on a reassessment of the working capital cycle, margins, etc.

Rationalisation of Compliance to KYC Requirements

Taking forward the initiatives of the Reserve Bank for enhancing customer convenience, it has been decided to rationalise certain components of the extant KYC norms. These include (a) extending the scope of video KYC known as V-CIP (video-based customer identification process) for new categories of customers such as proprietorship firms, authorised signatories and beneficial owners of Legal Entities and for periodic updation of KYC; (b) conversion of limited KYC accounts opened on the basis of Aadhaar e-KYC authentication in non-face-to-face mode to fully KYC-compliant accounts; (c) enabling the use of KYC Identifier of Centralised KYC Registry (CKYCR) for V-CIP and submission of electronic documents (including identity documents issued through DigiLocker) as identify proof; (d) introduction of more customer-friendly options, including the use of digital channels for the purpose of periodic updation of KYC details of customers.

Further, keeping in view the COVID related restrictions in various parts of the country, Regulated Entities are being advised that for the customer accounts where periodic KYC updating is due/pending, no punitive restriction on operations of customer account(s) shall be imposed till December 31, 2021 unless warranted due to any other reason or under instructions of any regulator/enforcement agency/court of law, etc. Account holders are requested to update their KYC during this period.

Utilisation of Floating Provisions and Countercyclical Provisioning Buffer

In order to mitigate the pandemic related stress on banks and as a measure to enable capital conservation, banks are being allowed to utilise 100 per cent of floating provisions/countercyclical provisioning buffer held by them as on December 31, 2020 for making specific provisions for non-performing assets with prior approval of their Boards. Such utilisation is permitted with immediate effect and up to March 31, 2022.

Relaxation in Overdraft (OD) facility for States Governments

To enable the State Governments to better manage their fiscal situation in terms of their cash-flows and market borrowings, certain relaxations are being permitted with regard to availment of Overdraft (OD) facilities. Accordingly, the maximum number of days of OD in a quarter is being increased from 36 to 50 days and the number of consecutive days of OD from 14 to 21 days. This facility will be available up to September 30, 2021. The Ways and Means Advance (WMA) limits of states have already been enhanced on April 23, 2021.

The relevant circulars/notifications relating to all the announcements will be issued separately, starting today.

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