Interest Subsidy Scheme for Artisans (Haryana)

What was the Haryana Interest Subsidy Scheme for Artisans?

Interest Subsidy Scheme for Artisans was a provision of the Enterprises Promotion Policy 2015 of the Industries and Commerce Department, Government of Haryana. It sat in the Handicraft Sector chapter of that policy, at clause 11.4, and it worked by paying part of the interest on a bank loan an artisan took to fund handicraft work.

The terms were short and specific. According to the policy notification, 6% interest subsidy on bank loan to the artisans for handicraft activities with a capping limit of Rs 25,000 per year for a period of three years was to be provided to artisans. Over the full three-year term, that came to a maximum of Rs 75,000 per artisan.

Important status note. The Enterprises Promotion Policy 2015 was superseded by the Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy 2020, which commenced on 1 January 2021. The Handicraft Sector chapter of the 2020 policy: Chapter 15 to contains State Handicrafts Awards, assistance for product promotion, and the State Mini SFURTI scheme, but it does not carry forward an artisan interest subsidy. No separate notification for an artisan interest subsidy appears among the schemes published under the 2020 policy.

This page therefore records what the scheme provided, and then sets out what a Haryana artisan can realistically apply for today. Artisans looking for an interest subsidy now have a better route, described below.

Who could claim, and who could not

Under the 2015 policy an artisan could claim if:

• The applicant was a handicraft artisan in Haryana.
• The applicant had taken a bank loan. The subsidy was tied to a formal loan from a bank, not to self-financed work.
• The loan was applied to handicraft activities.

An applicant was not eligible if:

• The loan was for an activity outside the handicraft sector.
• The applicant had no bank loan, since the benefit was an interest subsidy rather than a grant.
• The applicant had already drawn the benefit for 3 years, which was the maximum term.

The policy text does not set a block category restriction, an income ceiling or an age limit for this clause, and none should be assumed.

How much was payable?

At 6%, the Rs 25,000 annual cap was reached on a loan of roughly Rs 4.17 lakh. An artisan borrowing less than that received 6% of the interest actually charged rather than the flat cap.

How to apply for artisan support in Haryana

Because the 2015 provision is not live, the practical steps below are the route an artisan should follow today.

1. Confirm the current position with your District MSME Centre. The Joint Director or Deputy Director at the district centre handles handicraft and artisan matters and can confirm whether any residual claim under the 2015 policy is being entertained, and what artisan support is currently open in your district.
2. Register as a micro enterprise by filing an Udyam Registration Certificate at udyamregistration.gov.in and a Haryana Udhyam Memorandum on the state portal. This single step opens the far larger Interest Subsidy Scheme described in the next section.
3. Approach a bank for a term loan for your handicraft unit, and keep the sanction letter, disbursement record and an interest paid certificate.
4. File the interest subsidy claim online on the Industries and Commerce Department portal at haryanaindustries.gov.in, within 3 months of the close of the financial year for which the subsidy is claimed.
5. Contact the Micro and Village Enterprises Development Cell of the Directorate of MSME for cluster-based support and for the handicraft promotion schemes described below.

What a Haryana artisan can claim today

Interest Subsidy Scheme, notified 29 July 2021. An artisan who registers as a micro enterprise qualifies here, and the terms are substantially better than the old artisan clause:

• 5% interest subsidy on a term loan for a new micro enterprise, up to Rs 20 lakh per year to 5 years in C and D category blocks, 3 years in B category blocks.
• 6% for a woman, SC or ST-led micro enterprise, up to Rs 20 lakh per year for 5 years in B, C and D category blocks.

The cap of Rs 20 lakh a year is eighty times the old Rs 25,000 artisan cap. The trade-off is the registration and documentation burden: Udyam and HUM registration, a Chartered Accountant certificate on plant and machinery, and a bank certificate confirming regular repayment with no penal interest.

State Handicrafts Awards. The Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy 2020 provides 13 State Handicrafts Awards of Rs 5 lakh each, including one for an outstanding woman artisan, across the categories of painting, terracotta, clay objects, stone and marble, embroidery and textile, wood and bamboo, metal, leather, handloom, jute, wax and lac, and miscellaneous. 12 consolation prizes of Rs 51,000 each are also conferred. An artisan once selected for an award is not considered again for 5 years. The award value rose from Rs 3 lakh under the 2015 policy to Rs 5 lakh under the 2020 policy.

Assistance for product promotion. To help artisans sell handicraft items, Haryana organises 1 state-level fair with a budget of Rs 15 lakh and 4 district-level fairs of Rs 5 lakh each on special occasions, running for one to two weeks through the Trade Fair Authority Haryana. A state-level fair must have at least 50 participants or stalls; a district-level fair at least 20.

State Mini SFURTI scheme. For traditional industry clusters, the 2020 policy provides grant-in-aid of 90% of project cost, up to Rs 1 crore for regular clusters of up to 150 artisans and up to Rs 2 crore for major clusters of over 150 artisans. The support covers soft interventions such as capacity building and institutional support, and hard interventions such as marketing hubs, exhibition centres, raw material banks and common facility centres.

Health Insurance Scheme for Artisans. The Industries and Commerce Department separately lists a health insurance scheme for handicraft artisans, alongside a health insurance scheme for handloom weavers, on its schemes and policies page.

Where to get help

• Directorate of MSME, Haryana, Plot No. C-3, HSVP Complex, Sector 6, Panchkula 134109 — 0172-2580710.
• Additional Director, Directorate of MSME, 0172-2580706.
• Micro and Village Enterprises Development Cell, Directorate of MSME. The cell that handles artisan and village enterprise matters.
• District MSME Centre in your district, for scheme confirmation and claim filing.
• Haryana Khadi and Village Industries Board, Bays 63-66, Sector 2, Panchkula: 0172-2560409, for khadi and village industry artisans.
• Email the Directorate of MSME at info-msme@hry.gov.in.

Before acting on any figure on this page, confirm the current position with the District MSME Centre. The Industries and Commerce Department extended the Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy 2020 on 9 January 2026 until a new industrial policy is notified, and a Make in Haryana Industrial Policy 2026 is listed among the department's new policies. Handicraft provisions may be restated when that policy is issued.

How to check your application status

The 2015 artisan interest subsidy clause has no live claim window and no online tracker, so there is nothing to check on that specific provision. What an artisan can track is a claim filed under the scheme that actually replaced it, the Interest Subsidy Scheme notified on 29 July 2021.

• Portal status. Log in to the Industries and Commerce Department portal at haryanaindustries.gov.in with the credentials used to file the claim. A filed interest subsidy claim shows a case number and a stage marker such as received, under scrutiny at the District MSME Centre, forwarded to the Directorate of MSME, or sanctioned.
• District MSME Centre follow-up. If the portal shows no movement for several weeks, call or visit the District MSME Centre in the district where the enterprise is registered. The Joint Director or Deputy Director handling MSME claims can tell you which desk is holding the file and what document, if any, is pending from your side.
• Directorate of MSME escalation. For a claim stuck beyond the district level, contact the Directorate of MSME at Panchkula on 0172-2580710, or the Additional Director's line on 0172-2580706. Quote the Udyam Registration number and the case or file number from the portal.
• Email follow-up. A written follow-up to info-msme@hry.gov.in, with the Udyam number and case number in the subject line, creates a paper trail if a claim sits unresolved past a reasonable processing period.
• Old 2015-clause enquiries. An artisan who believes a claim was filed under the old 2015 clause before it lapsed should raise it directly with the District MSME Centre rather than expect an online status, since that provision predates the current portal-based claim system.

Common reasons for rejection

Interest subsidy claims of this kind are turned down less often for the borrower's eligibility and more often for gaps in the loan paperwork or the timing of the claim. The reasons that recur:

• Loan not linked to the covered activity. A claim is rejected when the bank loan was sanctioned for working capital, vehicle purchase, or a general business purpose rather than specifically for a handicraft or micro-enterprise activity. The fix is to get the bank's sanction letter to state the purpose clearly before drawing the loan, not after.
• No Udyam or Haryana Udhyam Memorandum registration. Under the current Interest Subsidy Scheme, the enterprise must be registered as a micro unit before the loan is claimed against. A claim filed for a unit that registered on Udyam only after the loan was disbursed is commonly returned for the registration date mismatch. Register first, then borrow.
• Missing interest-paid certificate from the bank. The subsidy is calculated on interest actually charged and paid, so a claim without a bank certificate showing the interest debited for the period is incomplete. Request this certificate from the branch at the time of each annual claim rather than waiting until a query is raised.
• Loan account not in regular standing. A bank certificate confirming regular repayment with no penal interest is required for the current scheme. Any period where an instalment was overdue, or penal interest was charged, is typically excluded from the subsidy calculation for that period, which reduces or voids the claim for that year.
• Claim filed outside the window. The claim for a given financial year must be filed within 3 months of that year's close. A claim submitted later is generally rejected for being time-barred, even when the loan and interest details are otherwise in order.
• Category or gender documentation not attached. Where a claim is made under the higher 6% rate for a woman, SC, or ST-led enterprise, the supporting proof of ownership and category, such as the Udyam entry showing the proprietor or majority partner, must accompany the claim. Absence of this proof gets the claim processed at the lower general rate rather than rejected outright, but it is a frequent cause of a reduced sanction that the applicant did not expect.
• Enquiries about the lapsed 2015 clause. Any claim submitted now that cites the 2015 Enterprises Promotion Policy clause 11.4 rather than the current 2021 scheme will be declined, because that provision was not carried into the Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy 2020. The remedy is to reapply under the current scheme rather than reference the superseded clause.