Small depositors of troubled cooperatives being repaid

Kathmandu, May 18: The government has started refunding deposits of small depositors affected by the crisis-hit cooperatives. 

The Problematic Cooperative Management Committee paid back deposits of 378 depositors of three such cooperatives on Monday. 

According to the Committee, 215 depositors of Kantipur Cooperatives, 156 of Shiva Shikhar Multipurpose Cooperatives and seven of Pashupati Cooperatives got their deposits back. 

At the first day on Monday, the committee refunded the amount of certain minimum depositors and the remaining depositors will be categorized based on the size of deposited amounts and will be paid back gradually, shared the Secretariat of the Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Parliament and General Administration, Pratibha Rawal. 

Around Rs 46 billion deposits of around 76,000 depositors of the troubled cooperatives have to be refunded, added the Committee. Of them, most of them are small depositors.

Depositors who have deposited less than Rs 500,000 have been categorized as small depositors and those who have deposited more than Rs 500,000 as large depositors.  

Out of 76,000 depositors, the number of depositors depositing more than 500,000 is 18,000.  Minister Rawal shared that activities are underway to recover loans of cooperatives to refund the savings of depositors. 

According to the Committee, more than 20 million loans have already been recovered from borrowers of the problematic cooperatives. Loan recovery and refund of deposits would continue simultaneously, mentioned the Committee. (RSS)