The disbursement target of National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) for the financial year 2024-25 is Rs 8.50 billion and NMDFC has disbursed Rs 7.52 billion to over 1,74,148 beneficiaries till 10th March 2025. NMDFC has delegated the authority to its State Channelizing Agencies (SCAs) to sanction, disburse & recover loan from beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are selected as per following eligibility criteria for release of concessional credit: Person should belong to notified National Minority viz., Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs as per National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Person having annual family income of upto Rs. 3.00 lakhs under Credit Line 1 and upto Rs. 8.00 lakhs under Credit Line 2. The applicants are required to submit the necessary documents for meeting the above eligibility criteria. To ensure that credit support reaches genuine and deserving minority beneficiaries, the SCAs have adopted a multi-level screening mechanism for document verification, background checks & site inspections before sanction of loan. Further, the sanctioned amount is released through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into the KYC authenticated beneficiary account. In order to enhance the implementation of NMDFC schemes across the nation, following steps have been taken by NMDFC: - Enhancing the annual family income limit under Credit Line 1 from Rs. 98,000/- in rural areas & Rs. 1,20,000/- in urban areas to Rs. 3.00 lakh per annum in both rural & urban areas. - Introduction of new Annual Family Income eligibility criterion of up to Rs.8.00 lakh per annum for greater coverage of persons from the targeted minority communities. - Quantum of loan under Term Loan scheme increased from Rs.10.00 lakh to Rs.30.00 lakh while under Micro Finance scheme, it has been increased from Rs.50,000/- to Rs.1.50 lakh per Self Help Group member. Under Education Loan scheme, the quantum of loan has been increased from Rs.5.00 lakh to Rs.20.00 lakh for domestic courses & from Rs.10.00 lakh to Rs.30.00 lakh for courses abroad. - Introduction of Virasat Scheme to meet the credit requirement of Artisans belonging to target group. - Self-Declaration/Self Certification/Self Attestation of documents is introduced in case of Religion Certificate, Family Income, Residence Proof, Mark Sheet, etc. - Transfer of loan directly in Bank Account of Beneficiary through NEFT/RTGS. - Insurance of beneficiary and their assets to safeguard against any untoward incident. - Signing of MoU with Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank & Punjab Gramin Bank to increase the outreach of NMDFC schemes in the States/UTs where SCAs are non-functional. - NMDFC has also developed MILAN Software to streamline and digitize the loan and accounting processes between applicants, State Channelizing Agencies (SCAs) and NMDFC. This information was given by the Union Minister of Minority Affairs & Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.