KATHMANDU, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's central bank has rolled out a number of measures to provide relief and revive the industries hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
By presenting the monetary policy for the fiscal year 2020-21 that began on July 16, Nepal Rastra Bank Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari said on Friday that the repayment deadline of paying loan installments would be extended by maximum one year depending on the degree of impact on the particular sector.
The worst affected industries can pay the installment required to be paid by mid-July this year, till mid-July next year.
The industries that faced medium level impact from the pandemic can pay such installment till mid-April next year and those mildly affected by COVID-19 can pay the installment mid-January next year.
Tourism and hospitality and airlines sector as well as small and medium enterprises are among the worst affected sectors by the pandemic which has claimed 40 lives and infected over 17,000 people in Nepal till Friday.
The Nepali central bank presents the monetary policy every year to help the Nepali government to achieve various economic objectives through monetary measures. Helping to revive the pandemic affected sectors is one of the major priorities of the Nepali government for the fiscal year 2020-21.
The policy has also decided to make arrangements of extending loans at cheaper interest rate to the COVID-19-affected sectors. A relief package of 50 billion Nepali rupees (444 million U.S. dollar) will be used for providing cheaper loans to the badly affected, like tourism, micro, small and medium enterprise, for their revival and paying the salaries to their staff.
These sectors will get loans at maximum 5 percent, it says. The central bank will also provide separate refinancing package for the pandemic-affected businesses at not more than 5 percent interest rate.
The major priority of Nepali government for this fiscal year is economic revival through various relief measures for the pandemic-affected sectors, agriculture modernization and job creation.
So, the monetary policy has made it mandatory for the commercial banks to extend a minimum 15 percent of total loans in the agriculture sector by mid-July 2023.
The Nepali central bank also asked the commercial banks to provide a minimum 10 percent of total loans in the hydropower sector by mid-July 2024.
For the first time, the banks are required to extend minimum 15 percent of total loans in micro, small and medium enterprises, according to the new monetary policy. These sectors are major job creators in Nepal. Enditem
