The largest public sector bank of the country, State Bank of India (SBI) on Saturday (11th April) decided to extend till September 30, the facility whereby its existing Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) customers can avail themselves of term loans as well as 20 per cent additional working capital limits at 8 per cent concessional interest. The bank also has lured new SME customers by announcing soft interest rates.

 

SBI said in a statement that, under the ‘SME Help’ scheme, existing customers can get term loans for a period of two years at 8 per cent interest. The bank has also reduced the interest rate on working capital and term loans for all new SME customers with loan requirements up to Rs 5 lakhs to 8 per cent. However to avail this SMEs should have been covered by Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises’ guarantee.

 

Further, for new SMEs with fund based loan requirements above Rs 5 lakhs but below Rs 25 lakhs, the bank is offering fixed rate of interest of 10 per cent. The bank said that, the interest concessions will be available for the next two years and will be available to those who obtain CGTMSE cover.