Kathmandu, Oct 26: The government has till the second month of the current fiscal year provided a loan worth one billion rupees for the payment to the employees and workers of tourism and cottage industries.    

The business continuity loan has been extended to the COVID-19 affected tourism, cottage, small and medium industries for payment of salaries to workers and employees in line with 'Business Continuity Loan Procedure, 2077'.    

Under this provision, Rs 1 billion loans have been approved as of mid-September, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) states in ‘Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation of Nepal (Based on Two Months’ Data Ending Mid-September, 2021/22)' issued on Monday.    

It may be noted that the government has implemented special provisions for economic relief to tourism, small and medium industries facing the severe consequences of the pandemic.    

The budget for the previous fiscal year and for the current fiscal has announced special relief for the COVID-19 –hit areas. The central bank has incorporated the special policy provisions in favour of businesses and enterprises in the monetary policy for the previous and current fiscal years.    
Likewise, the size of the outstanding amount of refinance provided by NRB in mid-September 2021 is Rs 118.85 billion. As of mid-September, the outstanding concessional loan of Rs 187.16 billion extended to 1, 20,715 borrowers.

Of this, Rs 121.06 billion has been extended to 51,272 borrowers for selected commercial agriculture and livestock businesses followed by Rs 62.37 billion to 66,690 women entrepreneurs. A total of 2,753 borrowers have been provided with Rs 3.73 billion concessional loans to other sectors, according to the NRB.