Public sector banks to provide personal loan upto Rs 5 lakh for Covid treatment

May 31: Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have announced to provide unsecured loans of upto ₹5 lakh to individuals to meet their and family members’ COVID-19 treatment cost. This forms part of three new loan products announced by them on Sunday to provide fresh lending support to vaccine manufacturers, hospitals/ dispensaries, pathology labs, manufacturers and suppliers of oxygen, ventilators, importers of vaccines & COVID related drugs logistics firms and individuals suffering from COVID-19.

The decision was announced jointly by the State Bank of India and the Indian Banks’ Association in a news conference in the aftermath of the devastating second wave of Covid-19 (IBA). According to a joint statement, PSBs will give “unsecured personal loans to individuals from Rs 25,000 to Rs 5 lakhs for salaried, non-salaried and pensioners for meeting Covid treatment.”

As part of the newly created Covid loan book under the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India, the banks will also offer healthcare business loans up to ₹ 2 crore capped at 7.5 per cent to hospitals, nursing homes for setting up oxygen plant. Business loans for healthcare facilities up to ₹ 100 crore will be provided to setup or expand healthcare infrastructure and to manufacturers of healthcare products.

All these schemes being offered by PSBs will form part of the COVID loan book and are under priority sector lending.