Working on expanding credit support, says DEA secretary

The government is working on expanding credit support through existing and new schemes while engaging with financial institutions to assess demand for long-term loans, Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur said on Monday.

• Government plans to expand credit support via new and existing schemes
• STT on futures and options raised to curb speculation, not for revenue
• Boosting manufacturing is key to strengthening the rupee's long-term value

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The government is working on expanding credit support through existing and new schemes while engaging with financial institutions to assess demand for long-term loans, department of economic affairs secretary Anuradha Thakur said on February 2.

A day earlier, the Budget for 2026-27 listed out a string of measures for micro, small and medium enterprises( MSMEs), SMEs as well as the manufacturing sector to support growth.

“On the credit side, the ministry is already working on various ongoing schemes as well as new schemes that they would like to bring in separately so that the credit support can continue and further get boosted,” Thakur said at a post-budget interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The government is in talks with public financial institutions to see if there is a demand for long-term loans.

“If you feel that long-term loans are required, the dialogue can be taken forward, so that it can also be worked out to see how and what kind of industries this can be dedicated to and what is the kind of financing that's needed,” Thakur said.

Chief economic adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said the way to address rupee’s valuation is through boosting manufacturing, which has been given a major thrust in the Budget 2026.

“If you are looking at a long-term reputation as a currency for strength and stability, manufacturing matters. Even if you are good at services sector surpluses, it doesn't really give such a boost to currency valuations as manufacturing does. So that is one element, and the second is we need to have manufacturing goods export and external surpluses to have meaningful and sustained reduction in cost of capital,” Nageswaran said.

In her Budget 2026, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 10,000 crore SME growth fund to create “future champions”.

She also proposed to increase public capital expenditure in the MSMEs sector to Rs 12.2 lakh crore and announced a liquidity support and credit guarantee mechanism for these businesses.

The guarantee cover for startups has been doubled from Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore to facilitate collateral-free debt funding, among other steps.