With the COVID-19 second wave hitting hard, the country's economic recovery has gone for a toss. During these difficult times, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come to the rescue for several industries, aiming to mitigate the financial pressures, especially for the MSME sector, which has been struggling due to the unforeseen spike in healthcare expenses.
In an effort to provide relief to the MSME sector, the RBI has announced a Term Liquidity Facility of Rs 50,000 crores with a tenure of up to 3 years, at the repo rate to provide easy access to credit for emergency health services. Following this, banks are required to facilitate the new lending support, categorised as priority sector till repayment or maturity, to entities such as hospitals/dispensaries, vaccine manufacturers, importers/suppliers of vaccines and medical devices, oxygen and ventilators manufacturers/suppliers, and testing labs. Besides, as stated by the RBI, to restore livelihoods, MSME borrowers and individuals impacted by the pandemic can avail other schemes for credit relief.