Director General of the Development Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Manjula Hettiarachchi noted that forty per cent of Rs. 95 billion allocated by the government in the 2026 budget to promote entrepreneurs in the country has been disbursed to beneficiaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than forty per cent of the loans have been disbursed to entrepreneurs before the end of the first four months of this year and Hettiarachchi expressed confidence that the beneficiaries will receive the entire amount before the end of the next eight months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Director General also said that the progress of the first four months of the programme implemented to encourage entrepreneurs by providing financial facilities will be reviewed tomorrow (April 10) at the Ministry of Finance with the participation of representatives from all bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The micro, small and medium enterprises sector, which represents two-thirds of all enterprises in Sri Lanka, contributes more than half of the country\u2019s GDP and employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the main problem faced by these entrepreneurs is the inability to raise the necessary funds to develop their businesses and the inability to provide the necessary collateral for this. To overcome these challenges, a massive financial relief programme of Rs. 95,686 million (over 95 billion) has been implemented for the year 2026 through the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The National Credit Guarantee Agency (NCGA) has been established as a solution to the problem of providing collateral, which is the main obstacle faced by many entrepreneurs in obtaining bank loans. This institution provides collateral cover for entrepreneurs who cannot provide collateral and plans to provide collateral of Rs. 7,000 million in 2026. This will enable entrepreneurs to access credit facilities worth about Rs. 10,000 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amount allocated for entrepreneurs in 2026 is an increase of about 65% compared to the previous year. This year, a new comprehensive loan scheme called \u2018Re-MSME Plus\u2019 has been introduced, under which loans up to a maximum of Rs. 25 million can be obtained at a minimum interest rate of 5%. Many key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and exports are covered under this scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has suspended the implementation of the Parata law until March 31, 2025 to protect entrepreneurs who are unable to repay their loans due to the economic slowdown. In addition, entrepreneurs have been provided with the opportunity to enter into a debt restructuring plan and receive interest subsidies. A \u2018Comprehensive Disaster Relief Loan Scheme\u2019 worth Rs. 10,000 million is being implemented to revive enterprises damaged by Cyclone Ditwah. This loan is provided with a repayment period of three years and a very low interest rate of 3% and a grace period of 6 months is also available for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Entrepreneurs who wish to receive this relief should follow the following steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To accordingly, conduct a field inspection by an officer of the Small Business Development Division, Vidatha or National Enterprise Development Division attached to the Divisional Secretariat and obtain a preliminary recommendation letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Submit the application with a recommendation letter to a state bank such as Bank of Ceylon, People\u2019s Bank, Regional Development Bank or a private bank such as Commercial, Sampath, Hatton National.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The loan could be obtained after the bank has forwarded the application to the Development Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance through the online system and obtained approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since all these programmes are implemented through a transparent, digital system, any qualified entrepreneur has the opportunity to obtain these concessions without any external influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Daily News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Director General of the Development Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Manjula Hettiarachchi noted that forty per cent of Rs. 95 billion allocated by the government in the 2026 budget to promote entrepreneurs in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16018,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16015\/revisions\/16018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}