Chongqing's municipal finance bureau recently raised the small loan limit of medium, small and micro-sized companies.

The ceiling of single emergency loan volume was doubled to 20 million yuan ($2.99 million).

The credit period is still limited to three days. The grace period under exceptional cases was extended to seven weekdays, two days longer than the previous regulation.

The credit rate per day for the first three days is 0.2 percent. The rate for the fourth day and later is 0.4 percent.

Issuing emergency working capital loans is Chongqing’s policy for handling financing problems of local middle, small and micro-sized companies. The fund’s total amount will be 500 million yuan ($75 million).

The prospective borrowers must be well operated, have a good credit record and have repayment ability.

Companies can apply for the loans on a web-based platform and related banks will review their applications before extending the loans.

The policy is intended to aid cash-strapped enterprises in getting loans quickly while cutting their financing costs by 99 percent.

The finance bureau said since the policy was initiated in January, 553 firms have registered on the platform with 92 having received loans of 502 million yuan ($75 million) by the end of May.

By Qiu Guizhen and edited by Peter Nordinger