Clarification: The outstanding value may exceed ₹20 lakh on account of accrued interest due to moratorium on repayment during study period. Accordingly, the entire outstanding amount shall be reckoned for priority sector provided the sanctioned limit does not exceed ₹20 lakh.

Clarification: Post September 4, 2020, if the aggregate sanctioned limit of multiple education loans either from a bank or across banks to a single borrower exceeds ₹20 lakh limit, all loans of the borrower sanctioned after September 4, 2020 shall become ineligible for PSL classification. In this regard, banks should take a declaration from the borrower regarding education loan sanctioned by any other bank/s and also independently seek confirmation from those banks.

Clarification: As per Udyam Registration Portal- NIC Codes, under Services as ‘Major Activity’, ‘Education’ & ‘Health Activities’ are eligible activities for classification under MSME (Services). Therefore, bank loans for above purposes can be classified under MSME (Services), wherein no cap on credit has been prescribed. However, banks can classify such activities either under MSME (Services) or Social Infrastructure, and not under both. It may be noted that for classification under Social Infrastructure, the associated cap on credit shall be applicable.

Clarification: As per extant guidelines, SMF includes individuals, SHGs, JLGs, Farmers’ Producer Companies (FPC) and Co-operatives of farmers with the accompanying criteria of membership by number and land-holding. Therefore, loans to partnership firms/ co-borrowers or any director of a Company holding Agriculture land upto 2 hectares / 5 acres are not eligible to be classified under the Small and Marginal farmers category of PSL

Clarification: As per extant guidelines, priority sector loans are eligible for classification as loans to minority communities as per the list notified by the GoI from time to time. The same may be read with Master Circular- Credit Facilities to Minority Communities which under para 2.2 states “In the case of a partnership firm, if the majority of the partners belong to one or the other of the specified minority communities, advances granted to such partnership firms may be treated as advances granted to minority communities. Further, if the majority beneficial ownership in a partnership firm belongs to the minority community, then such lending can be classified as advances to the specified communities. A company has a separate legal entity and hence advances granted to it cannot be classified as advances to the specified minority communities.”

Clarification: Our guidelines do not mandate banks to obtain documentary evidence for classifying credit facilities to Minorities and SCs/STs under weaker section. Therefore, declaration by the customer in the application form would suffice. However, it needs to be ensured that for classification under weaker sections, the loans should first be eligible for classification under priority sector lending as per underlying activity.I. Investment by Banks in securitized assets / Transfer of Assets through Direct Assignment/ Outright Purchase

Clarification: The bank may rely on a CA certificate by the originating entity certifying the PSL composition of the pool. Additionally, bank may conduct a sample check of say 10% of the pool for PSL eligibility. The additional check may be conducted by the bank through its own staff or by engaging a CA for this purpose.J. PSLCs

Clarification: The banks are required to submit a request to FIDD, CO (fiddplan@rbi.org.in) to obtain registration for PSLC trading by submitting a) DEA Fund Code b) Customer identification number and c) RBI Current account number.

Clarification: All PSLCs will be valid till end of FY i.e. March 31st and will expire on next day i.e. April 1st.

Clarification: The duration of the PSLCs will depend on the date of issue with all PSLCs being valid till end of FY i.e. March 31st and expiring on next day i.e. April 1st.

Clarification: PSLCs may be construed in the nature of 'goods' in the course of inter-state trade or commerce, dealing in which has been notified as a permissible activity under section 6(1)(o) of BR Act vide Government of India Notification dated May 4, 2016. GST on PSLCs for the period July 01, 2017 to May 28, 2018 has to be paid by the seller bank on forward charge basis at the rate of 12%. With effect from May 28, 2018, GST has to be paid by the buyer bank under Reverse Charge Mechanism (RCM) at the rate of 18%. Further, IGST is payable on the supply of PSLC traded over e-kuber portal. If a bank which was liable to pay GST had already paid CGST/SGST or CGST/UGST, the bank is not required to pay IGST towards such supply. Further, as per the extant guidelines, no transaction charge/ fees is applicable on the participating banks payable to RBI for usage of the PSLC module on e-Kuber portal.

(The clarification given above is not a legal advice or opinion in the matter and it may not necessarily reflect the most current legal developments. The market participants should seek the advice of the tax experts/consultants/specialists before acting upon any of the information provided above).

Clarification: There are only four eligible categories of PSLCs i.e. PSLC General, PSLC Small and Marginal Farmer, PSLC Agriculture & PSLC Micro Enterprises.

Clarification: 'Export Credit' can form a part of underlying assets against the PSLC - General. However, any bank issuing PSLC-General against 'Export Credit' shall ensure that the underlying 'Export Credit' portfolio is also eligible for priority sector classification by domestic banks.

Clarification: Foreign banks with less than 20 branches are not allowed to buy PSLC General for achieving their 8% target of lending to sectors other than exports. However, such banks are allowed to buy PSLC Agriculture, PSLC Micro Enterprises and PSLC Small and Marginal Farmer for the same.

Clarification: The trade summary of PSLC market is available to the participants through the e-Kuber portal. Any new functionality will be notified to the participants via 'News & Announcements' section under e-Kuber portal.

Clarification: A bank can purchase PSLCs as per its requirements. Further, a bank is permitted to issue PSLCs upto 50 percent of previous year’s PSL achievement without having the underlying in its books. This is applicable category-wise. The net position of PSLCs (PSLC Buy – PSLC Sell) has to be considered while reporting the quarterly and annual priority sector returns. However, with regard to ascertaining the underlying assets, as on March 31st, the bank must have met the priority sector target by way of the sum of outstanding priority sector portfolio and net of PSLCs issued and purchased.

Clarification: The misclassifications, if any, will have to be reduced from the achievement of PSLC seller bank only. There will be no counterparty risk for the PSLC buyer, even if, the underlying asset of the traded PSLC gets misclassified.

Clarification: The premium will be completely market determined. No floor/ ceiling has been prescribed by RBI in this regard.

Clarification: There will be real time settlement of the matched premium and accordingly respective current accounts of the participating banks with RBI will be debited/ credited to the extent of matched premium

Clarification: The order matching will be done on anonymous basis through the portal and the buyer/ seller cannot select the counterparty. Partial matching will happen depending on the matching of premium and availability of category wise PSLC lots for sale and purchase.