DW BUREAU / Chandigarh As part of its efforts to mitigate industry suffering and provide proactive financial assistance, Punjab has already sanctioned Rs.2165.53 crore to MSME units under Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) with Rs.1133.93 crore already disbursed. Disclosing this, Punjab Industries Minister Sunder Sham Arora said Punjab under Captain Amarinder Singh's leadership stands at 3rd position among all States in India with 94.93 per cent sanctions. There are approximately 1,64,769 MSME eligible loan accounts involving an eligible loan amount of Rs. 4372 Crore, the Minister said adding, of which 1,11,881 eligible borrowers opted in for the scheme till last week. Following adverse impact of COVID-19 pandemic on various industries/sectors, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance Govt. of India through National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd. (NCGTC) has introduced the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for providing 100% guarantee coverage for additional working capital term loans upto 20% of the entire outstanding loan liability up to 25 Crore as on February, 29 2020 i.e. maximum loan amount of Rs.5 crore, subject to certain stipulations, as per the Scheme. Consequently, a special SLBC was convened as per the request of the department to expedite the sanctions and disbursement as per the target given by the Govt. of India i.e.100% sanction by 15th July 2020 and 100% disbursed by 31st July 2020. Accordingly, various bank boards have approved their new scheme under "Guaranteed Emergency Credit Line (GECL)" for providing relief to affected units to meet their operational liabilities and restart their business. The finance extended under the Scheme shall be covered by Guarantee Coverage of NCGTC to the extent of 100 per cent.Majority of banks in Punjab has started financing under the scheme. In order to coordinate with eligible MSMEs and Financing Institutions and also with Industrial Associations, Government of Punjab had constituted a ECLGS Cell in the Department of Industries and Commerce. (editor@dailyworld.in)