New Delhi: The Union government plans to launch the PM Vishwakarma scheme for artisans and workers on 17 September. Under the scheme, beneficiaries will get ₹15,000 each as toolkit incentives through e-vouchers or eRUPI. The artisans will also receive collateral free enterprise development loans at concessional rate of interest as well as an incentive of ₹1 per transaction for a maximum of 100 transactions per month.
Prior to the artisans coming under the ambit of the scheme, they would have to go through a skill verification phase followed by a five-day training session. Subsequently, they would be provided an advanced training session for 15 or more days. During the training period they would get a stipend of ₹500 per day. In addition to the incentives, the scheme has a corpus of ₹250 crore for quality certification, branding, advertising, publicity and other marketing activities.
The scheme was approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) on the 16th of August with an outlay of ₹13,000 crore for a period of five years (FY24-28). After the Cabinet approval, the MSME ministry added the toolkit incentive and sops for digital transactions.
Under the scheme, artisans and craftspeople will be recognized through PM Vishwakarma certificate and ID card along with a credit support of up to ₹1 lakh (in the first tranche) and ₹2 lakh (second tranche) with a concessional interest rate of 5%. The concessional interest rate though would be subject to interest subvention cap up to 8% and a credit oversight committee may revise the subvention cap in line with the prevailing interest rates. The credit guarantee fees would be borne by the central government.
The Vishwakarma scheme will provide support to artisans and craftspeople of rural and urban areas across the country. 18 traditional trades have been identified as the initial beneficiary sectors including carpenters, boat makers, blacksmiths, hammers and tool kit makers, locksmiths, goldsmiths, potters, sculptors, stone breakers, cobblers, shoesmiths, masons, coir weavers, traditional toy makers, barber garland makers, washermen and tailors.
The eligibility requirements also include a minimum age of 18 years. In addition, the applicants should not have availed loans under similar credit based self-employment schemes such as Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi, Mudra scheme among other central and state government scheme in the past five years. The applicants would have to give a self-declaration on these criteria and accordingly the due diligence would be done by banks. The registration and benefits would also be restricted to one member of a family.
To implement the Vishwakarma scheme, a national steering committee, state monitoring committees, and district implementation committees will be created. Besides the lowest level of the implementing organizational structure would have the field level agencies including banks and skilling centres among others.
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