The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday proposed to extend the term-liquidity facility of Rs 50,000 crore offered to emergency health services by three months till June 30, 2022. Last year in May, RBI had announced an on-tap liquidity window of Rs 50,000 crore, at the repo rate with tenors of up to three years, to boost provision of immediate liquidity for ramping up COVID-19-related healthcare infrastructure and services in the country.

Banks were incentivised for quick delivery of credit under the scheme through extension of priority-sector classification to such lending up to March 31, 2022.

“In view of the response to the scheme, it is now proposed to extend this window up to June 30, 2022 from March 31, 2022 as announced earlier,” RBI said in the statement on Development and Regulatory Policies on Thursday.

Under the scheme, banks were expected to create a COVID-19 loan book.

By way of an additional incentive, such banks were eligible to park their surplus liquidity up to the size of the COVID-19 loan book with the RBI under the reverse repo window at a rate of 25 bps lower than the repo rate, i.e., 40 bps higher than the reverse repo rate.

Up to February 4, 2022, banks have deployed their own funds to the tune of Rs 9,654 crore towards COVID-19-related emergency health services, RBI said.

The central bank also extended the on-tap liquidity window for contact-intensive sectors up to June 30, 2022.

On June 4, 2021, RBI had decided to open a separate liquidity window of Rs 15,000 crore at the repo rate with tenors of up to three years available till March 31, 2022 for certain contact-intensive sectors.

“In view of the response to the scheme, it is now proposed to extend this window up to June 30, 2022,” RBI said.

Banks have deployed their own funds to the tune of Rs 5,041 crore (up to February 4, 2022) to the entities under contact-intensive sectors.