Kolkata, March 7 -- Young entrepreneurs who have already availed benefits of West Bengal Bhabishyat Credit Card Scheme (WBBCCS) and those who are going to avail the same in the days to come have reasons to rejoice with the Mamata Banerjee government taking up the responsibility of paying a large amount of the charge demanded by the bank against granting of loan.

"Banks have been charging in the range of 10-12 per cent against loans given under WBBCCS scheme. Now, the beneficiaries will have to pay only 4 per cent of the bank charge against the loan and the balance amount will be borne by the state government. The state Cabinet has already approved the matter," an official in the state MSME department said. Over 1.5 lakh applications have been received under WBBCCS and 25,000 of these have been sanctioned by the bank. The already sanctioned applications will also come under the purview of the new decision by the state government.

The WBBCCS scheme for the young entrepreneurs in the age group 18-55 years offers subsidy linked and collateral free loans for setting up new ventures/ projects/ micro enterprises in manufacturing, service and business / trading/ agro-based activities.

Eligible applicants can take a business loan of up to Rs 5 lakh to start a business. Seed money of up to Rs 25,000 is provided by the government. The scheme was announced by the state government in the state Budget for 2023-24 that was presented in February last year in the state legislative Assembly and applications were received from April 1. The target of coverage is 2 lakh youth per year.

A significant number of educated youth of the state who have entrepreneurship skills and want to be self-reliant by setting up micro enterprises have limited access to institutional finance for their credit needs.

In this backdrop, the state felt it necessary to facilitate the youth to become self-employed leading to income generation, wealth creation and creation of further employment opportunities in rural and urban areas of the state. This led the department to launch the scheme.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.