An Industry body has sought Reserve Bank's intervention to make banks offer loans to small and medium enterprises (SME) at eight per cent to tide over the economic downturn.
"The interest rate for SME sector should not be more than eight per cent as in case of home loan and other priority sector," All India Association of Industries' (AIAI) President, Vijay Kalantri said in a statement.
AIAI has written to Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao in this regard, the statement said.
Country'a largest lender, SBI had recently launched two promotional schemes to provide working capital and term loans to small companies at concessional rates.
SBI has so far sanctioned Rs 600 crore worth loans to its SME clients under these schemes. The bank aims to disburse Rs 22,000 crore of loans to its SME clients by March.
