The extended deadline to apply for the Credit Support Scheme for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) would only be beneficial if the Central Bank of Sri Lanka takes adequate measures to create awareness about the scheme, the Colombo Chamber of Commerce (CCC) told The Sunday Morning Business. While appreciating the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s move to extend the initial deadline of 31 January provided for the Credit Support Scheme until 10 February, CCC President Saranga Wijeyarathne noted that many of the stakeholders are not aware of the scheme and that hinders them from reaping the maximum benefit from it. “Most of the stakeholders do not know about this scheme. Sometimes when a person goes and inquires about the scheme, certain bank branches are not even made aware of this to provide details,” Wijeyarathne noted. He added that as a result, even after two weeks from the issuance of the relevant circular, the banks had received only about 100 applications from the 4,000 members of CCC, a majority of whom are SMEs. Wijeyarathne suggested the Central Bank conduct an extensive awareness campaign immediately to communicate the real benefits of the scheme and also to launch a helpline to obtain details on this scheme. In addition to this, the Chamber is planning to have a discussion with the Central Bank, Ministry of Finance, and other banks to either include micro-sector businesses in this scheme or to draft another scheme for them. “Micro-sector businesses are also badly affected by this. But the scheme is only for the businesses that earn an annual turnover between Rs. 16 million and Rs. 750 million. We are going to discuss the businesses that earn up to Rs. 15 million annual turnover," Wijeyarathne added. Early last week, the CCC requested the Central Bank to extend the deadline given to apply for the Credit Support Scheme until 29 February 2019. However, the Central Bank, during the first monetary policy review on Thursday (30) announced that it has extended the timeline until 10 February. In addition to this, the Chamber also requested to extend the moratorium provided to local SMEs from loans obtained from licensed banks to finance companies as well. “The upper limit cap should be restricted to Rs. 3 million to ensure that the finance companies are not overexposed in supporting the lower tier of SMEs,” Wijeyarathne noted. However, the Central Bank, during the monetary policy review, noted that they are looking at the possibilities but also added that most of the finance companies are also going through a hard time. “Finance companies are asking us to give moratoriums to clear their loans”, Central Bank Senior Deputy Governor Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe stated.