Yes, guidelines on ‘Streamlining flow of credit to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) for facilitating timely and adequate credit flow during their ‘Life Cycle’ were issued to Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) vide our circular FIDD.MSME & NFS.BC.No.60/06.02.31/2015-16 dated August 27, 2015.

In terms of the captioned guidelines, banks have been advised to review and tune their existing lending policies to the MSE sector by incorporating therein the following provisions so as to facilitate timely and adequate availability of credit to viable MSE borrowers especially during the need of funds in unforeseen circumstances:

(i) To extend standby credit facility in case of term loans

(ii) Additional working capital to meet with emergent needs of MSE units

(iii) Mid-term review of the regular working capital limits, where banks are convinced that changes in the demand pattern of MSE borrowers require increasing the existing credit limits of the MSEs, every year based on the actual sales of the previous year.

(iv) Timelines for Credit Decisions.

The objective of TReDS is to create Electronic Bill Factoring Exchanges which could electronically accept and settle bills so that MSMEs could encash their receivables without delay. This will not only give them greater access to finance but will also put greater discipline on corporates to pay their dues on time. For more details you may refer to RBI guidelines for setting up and operating TReDS on /en/web/rbi/-/guidelines-for-the-trade-receivables-discounting-system-treds-3504.

In terms of announcement in para 48 of First Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2016-17, Reserve Bank laid down a framework for accreditation of credit counsellors which was shared with SIDBI for laying down operational guidelines. Accordingly, the scheme was launched by SIDBI in July 2017. As per the scheme, Certified Credit Counsellors are institutions or individuals registered with SIDBI who shall assist MSMEs in preparing project reports in a professional manner which would, in turn, help banks make more informed credit decisions.