PANJIM: In an attempt to provide relief to mining dependents, the State Cabinet has granted its post-facto approval for extension of the ‘Debt Relief – One Time Settlement’ (OTS) scheme for mining affected borrowers for a period of six month till September 30.
The extension has been granted from April 1 to September 30, restricting it to proposals pending with banks or those which were rejected earlier. This is the fifth extension granted to the scheme, launched in August 2014.
The cabinet decision was taken via circulation on May 21. “Since this is the last revision of the scheme, the final authority to grant the benefit either fully or in exceptional cases as an ex-gratia benefit in either single case of group of cases, shall lie with Chief Minister, whose decision shall be final,” the cabinet note states.
Under the scheme a subsidy up to 35 percent on the loan settlement amount is provided. Banks and financial institutions are granting a waiver of 100 percent loan interest from September 2012 and 40 percent waiver on principal loan amount for truck owners and 30 percent to barge owners. Around 4000 applications have been sanctioned with subsidy of Rs 121 crore.
The OTS scheme first lapsed in March 2015 and was extended up to September 4, 2015. Later it was extended to December, 2015 and then up to March 31, 2016. The scheme was re-opened till December 2017 and later extended till March 31, 2018.
