SIDBI extends validity of Swavalamban Crisis Responsive Fund

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has extended the validity of ‘Swavalamban Crisis Responsive Fund’ (SCRF) to facilitate free on-boarding of more micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on the TReDS platform.

Now the last date of drawdown of the fund will be up to May 31, 2021, SIDBI said in a release. It said that the plan is to on-board over 13,500 MSMEs by March 31, this year as against the earlier envisaged 10,000.

SCRF was set up in June 2020 to support on-boarding of MSMEs on the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platform and waiving their joining/registration fees.

Receivables Exchange of India (RXIL), M1xchange and Invoicemart are the three TReDS platforms which help MSMEs gain access to working capital through invoice discounting via multiple financiers.

As on November 30,last year, a total of 6,545 MSMEs have been given free on-boarding facility on TReDS through RXIL, M1xchange and Invoicemart.

TReDS is an electronic platform where receivables of MSMEs drawn against buyers (large corporates, public sector undertakings, government departments, etc) are financed through multiple financiers at competitive rates through an auction mechanism.