An evaluation of how banks help small and medium-sized businesses in Assam

Commercial banks in Assam have a higher number of branch network, but private banks

have surpassed public sector banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) by a huge margin

in financing MSMEs. Average per branch achievement in disbursing credit to MSME is

₹252 lakhs for public sector banks, ₹1,254 lakh for private sector banks and ₹161 lakhs

for RRBs for the year 2017-18. Public sector, private sector and RRBs have mostly

failed in achieving the target of 7.5% of ANBC towards micro enterprises, but the

contribution of private sector banks is comparatively higher. Constraints experienced by

MSMEs in acquiring finance from banks include inadequate collateral security

requirements, insufficient promotional drives, negative overall attitude towards MSMEs,

and unreasonably high time gap between submission and sanction.