Claim 02 · Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh · 8 August 2026
90% of small and medium businesses do not get bank loans.
“90% of small and medium businesses do not get bank loans.”Rahul Gandhi, Chhatron Ki Goonj rally, Prayagraj, 8 August 2026
Rated False
The facts
The claim that “90% of MSMEs lack access to credit” is being thrown around as a political talking point.
MSME bank lending more than tripled: MSME lending rose from ₹8.5 lakh crore in FY2014 to ₹27.3 lakh crore in FY2024—a 220% increase.
MUDRA alone has sanctioned 57.79 crore loans worth ₹40.07 lakh crore, including 12.15 crore loans worth ₹12 lakh crore to first-time entrepreneurs.95
Collateral-free guarantees scaled up: government increased maximum guarantee-backed loan size increased from ₹2 crore to ₹10 crore, and subsequently to ₹10 crore. The government infused ₹9,000 crore into the guarantee fund to facilitate an estimated ₹2 lakh crore of additional MSE credit. By December 2024, Government had already guaranteed 1.01 crore loans worth ₹8.07 lakh crore.
As part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat reforms, the government also revised MSME investment thresholds sharply upward, bringing far more enterprises into formal credit and support schemes: Micro units from ₹25 lakh to ₹2.5 crore (10×), Small units from ₹5 crore to ₹25 crore (5×), and Medium units from ₹10 crore to ₹125 crore (12.5×).