By : Satyaki Paul
On June 11, 2021 the State Bank of India launched “KAVACH Personal Loan” for individuals affected with coronavirus. The aim of the scheme is to provision collateral free personal loans to tackle medical expenses emerged due to treatment of COVID19 patients.
This scheme will enable individuals to take up loans up to 5 lacs at an interest of 8.5% per year for 60 months. And, the 3-month moratorium is included in this scheme with post-reimbursement of medical expenses if already incurred to the loanee. The loan scheme is a part of COVID19 loan book which is being fashioned by banks in line with RBI’s COVID relief measures.
According to Dinesh Khara (the Chairman of SBI), the SBI KAVACH Loan scheme to aid and assist individuals affected in the wake of coronavirus crisis. The scheme will offer financial assistance to the individuals to manage the COVID treatment related expenses with any hassle. This strategic loan scheme, seeks to provide access to monetary assistance—exclusively in this grim situation for all those who are regrettably affected by coronavirus. He further added that it is SBI’s constant endeavour to develop financial solutions for customers suiting their requirements.
In similar vein, the Canara Bank has also launched some loan programs: health credit (Canara Chikitsa healthcare credit facility), business loans (Canara Jeevanrekha healthcare business loans) and personal loans to individuals. The health credit facility will provide loans from Rs. 10 lacs to 50 crores with a tenure of 10 years and a moratorium of 1 year 6 months. This loan will be only available to registered hospitals, nursing homes, medical practitioners, etc. The business loans will be provided for manufacture of oxygen, oxygen cylinders, etc. with a loan amount up to Rs. 2 crores. This scheme can be availed both by the manufacturers and also the dealers. The author works as a Ph.D. Research Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, and the co-author of the book Anthropology For All (2021).