Nirmala Sitharaman said efforts are being made to ensure that due payments are released to MSMEs

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday that banks have sufficient liquidity. In a media briefing after a meeting with chiefs of public sector banks, the Finance Minister said efforts are being made to ensure that due payments are released to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector by large corporates. In order to ensure liquidity for small businesses, Ms Sitharaman said, banks have been asked to provide a bill discounting facility to the MSME sector against payments due from the large corporates.

According to returns filed by the large corporates to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, as much as Rs 40,000 crore is due to the MSME sector, she said.

The Finance Ministry said loans worth Rs 81,781 crore were disbursed during the nine-day outreach programme or loan camps organised by banks that began on October 1.

"Rs 81,781 crore was disbursed in the outreach programme. Of these, new loans accounted for Rs 34,342 crore," said Finance Secretary Rajeev Kumar.

The Finance Minister also said that all efforts would be made to ensure that MSMEs get their dues ahead of Diwali (October 27).