Term Loan Scheme, Gujarat Minority Finance and Development Corporation

What is the GMFDC Term Loan Scheme?

Term Loan Scheme is the main self-employment credit programme of the Gujarat Minority Finance and Development Corporation (GMFDC), a state corporation under the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat. The scheme gives members of notified minority communities a concessional loan to start or expand a livelihood, instead of paying commercial interest to a bank or, more often, to a moneylender.

GMFDC works as the state channelising agency in Gujarat for the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) under the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. Most of the money for the term loan comes from NMDFC, with a state share and a beneficiary margin on top. That is what makes the interest rate concessional rather than commercial. The Gujarati name for the scheme on the corporation's own portal is the muddati loan; literally the "term" loan.

Core terms

• Loan size: Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 20,00,000, sized to the project cost
• Interest: 6% a year under NMDFC Credit Line-1; Credit Line-2 is published at 8% for male and 6% for female beneficiaries
• Repayment: 60 equal monthly instalments (five years) including interest
• Income ceiling: Rs 3.00 lakh a year for Credit Line-1 and Rs 8.00 lakh a year for Credit Line-2, per NMDFC
• Age: 21 to 45 years at the date of application

Activities covered

The scheme is deliberately broad. According to the scheme description published for GMFDC, the term loan supports self-employment in agriculture and allied activities, small-scale business and trade, artisan and handicraft work, the transport sector, traditional occupations, and service-based businesses. In practice the loans that get sanctioned most often are for shop stock, tailoring and embroidery units, small manufacturing tools, dairy and goat units, auto-rickshaws and light goods vehicles, and equipment for a service trade such as mobile or appliance repair.

Who is eligible for the Term Loan Scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Gujarat and belong to one of the notified minority communities — Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi.
• You are between 21 and 45 years of age on the date of application.
• Your family's annual income is within the ceiling of the credit line you are applying under.
• You have experience or the relevant technical education for the business you intend to run.
• You can arrange an acceptable guarantor.
• For a transport-sector loan, you hold a valid driving licence.

You cannot apply if:

• You do not belong to a notified minority community. Socially and Educationally Backward Class applicants should approach the Gujarat Backward Classes Development Corporation, Scheduled Caste applicants the Gujarat Scheduled Castes Development Corporation, and Thakor or Koli applicants the Gujarat Thakor and Koli Vikas Nigam.
• You are under 21 or over 45.
• Your family income exceeds the applicable ceiling.
• You or a family member has already taken a loan from GMFDC, the Gujarat Backward Classes Development Corporation, or any other central or state government institution or bank for the same purpose. This is an explicit disqualification in the scheme conditions.
• You are a defaulter on an earlier corporation loan.
• You have no experience or training in the proposed activity and cannot document it.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the GMFDC Term Loan Scheme

1. Open the corporation's online portal at gmfdconline.gujarat.gov.in and check whether the muddati (term) loan window is open. The portal publishes the window dates; the muddati loan window was shown as running up to 31 March 2026.
2. Register with an active mobile number and create your login. The corporation also allows you to edit a returned application and to track instalments from the same login.
3. Choose the term loan (muddati) scheme and fill the application: personal and community details, family income, the activity proposed, the project cost and the amount you are seeking.
4. Upload the documents and your photograph as the portal specifies: community proof, income and age certificates, Aadhaar, ration card, project report or quotations, experience proof and bank passbook.
5. Confirm and submit the application. An application that is saved but never confirmed does not enter the queue. Save the application number.
6. Print the confirmed application, sign it, attach self-attested copies of all enclosures and the guarantor's papers, and submit the file to the district office or the Social Welfare Officer named on the receipt within the days stated.
7. Attend the verification or interview if called. The officer checks the proposed business site and your experience.
8. After sanction, complete the loan agreement and surety formalities. The money is disbursed by bank transfer, and for asset purchases it is normally released against the invoice.

How to apply offline

1. Visit the Gujarat Minority Finance and Development Corporation office at Block No. 11, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar, or the district Social Welfare Officer handling corporation schemes in your district.
2. Ask for the economic prosperity schemes information brochure, which the corporation publishes as a PDF, and the current term loan checklist.
3. Submit the completed form with all enclosures and take a dated acknowledgement.

Most districts will still make the online entry, because sanction and disbursement run on the online system.

How to check the application status

1. Log in at gmfdconline.gujarat.gov.in with your registered mobile number.
2. Open the application status option and enter your application number.
3. The portal shows whether the file is pending, returned for correction, sanctioned or disbursed, and lets you edit and resubmit a returned file.

For anything else, call 079-23253757, 079-23254583 or 079-23253843, or write to md-gmfdcl@gujarat.gov.in.

Why term loan applications get rejected

• Application not confirmed before the window closed.
• Income certificate above the ceiling, or from a prior year.
• Age outside the 21 to 45 band on the application date.
• An existing loan taken by the applicant or a family member from GMFDC, GBCDC, another government corporation or a bank.
• Default on an earlier loan, which bars the whole family.
• No documented experience in the proposed trade.
• Guarantor papers incomplete, which stalls files even after sanction.
• Vague project report with no costed quotations, which makes it impossible for the district office to fix a loan amount.
• Target exhausted for the year, which returns even a complete file.

Understanding the two NMDFC credit lines

The single most useful thing an applicant can know is which credit line they fall in, because it changes both the ceiling and the rate.

• Credit Line-1 covers annual family income up to Rs 3.00 lakh, with loans up to Rs 20 lakh at 6% a year. This is the line most GMFDC term loan borrowers use, and it matches the Rs 1 lakh to Rs 20 lakh range published for the Gujarat scheme.
• Credit Line-2 covers annual family income up to Rs 8.00 lakh, with a higher ceiling of up to Rs 30 lakh, at 8% a year for male and 6% for female beneficiaries.

Repayment under NMDFC guidelines runs in 36 or 60 monthly instalments depending on the loan; the Gujarat scheme is published with 60. Ask the district office which line and which schedule your sanction is under, and check that the sanction letter says the same thing.

Related GMFDC schemes

GMFDC also runs a margin money loan scheme for minorities, and an educational loan programme whose window on the online portal was published as opening on 16 December 2025. A borrower may only hold one corporation loan at a time, so choose the scheme that matches the need rather than applying to several.

Help and grievance redressal

• Phone: 079-23253757, 079-23254583, 079-23253843
• Email: md-gmfdcl@gujarat.gov.in
• Office: Gujarat Minority Finance and Development Corporation, Ground Floor and 2nd Floor, Block No. 11, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar
• District level: the Social Welfare Officer of your district

Applying is free. No agent is authorised to charge a fee for arranging a sanction, and repayment should be made only through the corporation's official payment channel or against an official receipt.