TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: As many as 298 bank loan accounts of mining loan borrowers will be closed after settling their loan liability through State government proposed One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme.
Government has spent Rs 4.56 crore, till date, which is subsidy of 35 percent on the total loan settlement amount to close the mining borrowers’ loan liabilities.
The Debt Relief Scheme for mining-affected borrowers of financial institutions, which was launched in September 2014, offers a ceiling of Rs 15 lakh for truck owners, Rs 25 lakh for mining machinery owners and Rs 35 lakh for barge owners, as subsidy against the total loan settlement amount, provided the loan was taken before September 30, 2012.
According to information, of the total 529 applications received from the truck, barge and machinery owners, by the five-member scrutiny committee headed by Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Chief General Manager P D Gawade, the loan liabilities of 298 borrowers has been settled and their bank accounts have been close.
Of the total 298 closed loan accounts, a majority of 268 bank loan accounts were with the Corporation Bank and 30 were with the State Bank of India (SBI). Moreover, of these loan accounts, only one belongs to a barge owner which was with SBI, while rest 297 were in the name of truck and machinery owners-cum-operators.
“An amount of Rs 4.12 crore has been paid to the Corporation Bank, while another Rs 43.5 lakh has been disbursed to SBI for settling loans. Total Rs 4.56 crore has been disbursed by the government so far,” a senior official said.
Both the banks – SBI and Corporation Bank – had proposed waiver of 100 percent loan interest from September 2012, and 40 percent waiver on principal loan amount for truck owners, while 30 percent waiver was given to barge owners.
As reported by Herald earlier, over the last 29 months, mining loan borrowers have settled their loan liability of around Rs 833 crore by selling their assets such as properties, gold, trucks and barges. They were banking on OTS for
settling of the balance
loan liabilities.
