E-Paper
Cabinet increases loan amount of PM SVANidhi scheme for street vendors
By July 30, 2025, over 9.6 million loans amounting to ₹13,797 crore have been disbursed to more than 6.8 million street vendors under the PM SVANidhi scheme
The union cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday increased the loan amount of the PM SVANidhi (Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi) scheme and added a provision of UPI-linked RuPay credit cards.
Launched in June 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, the existing PM SVANidhi scheme gave collateral-free loans to street vendors over three tranches: ₹10,000 initially, followed by ₹20,000 and ₹50,000 upon timely repayment. With this revamp, beneficiaries can get ₹5,000 more in the first two tranches of the loan from ₹10,000 and ₹20,000 to ₹15,000 and ₹25,000, respectively. The third tranche remains at ₹50,000.
The cabinet also extended the lending period to March 2030 and expanded the ambit of the scheme beyond statutory towns to census towns, peri-urban areas in a graded manner, with an outlay of ₹7,332 crore for the restructured and expanded scheme.
The scheme also offers a 7% interest subsidy and cashback incentives (up to ₹1,200 annually) for digital transactions.
The eligibility criteria for the RuPay credit cards are successful repayment of two tranches
By July 30, 2025, over 9.6 million loans amounting to ₹13,797 crore have been disbursed to more than 6.8 million street vendors. Further, nearly 4.7 million beneficiaries have earned a total cashback of ₹241 crore.
Other than providing credit, the scheme will work towards ensuring street vendors and their families avail the benefits of different welfare programmes run by the Centre under the ‘SVANidhi se Samriddhi’ programme. This exercise will be enhanced through monthly Lok Kalyan Melas.
A 2023 State Bank of India study on the scheme found that 43% of the beneficiaries were women, 44% belonged to the OBC category, while Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 22%.
