Govt. directs all banks to suspend recovery of SME loans up to Rs.300 mn

20 December 2019 08:28 pm Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 4 Bookmark

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President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa - who is also the Minister of Finance - have issued directives to chairmen and CEOs of all banks to suspend the recovery of loans obtained by the small-medium enterprise (SME) sector up to Rs 300 million.

The Finance Ministry said in a statement that the government had taken a decision to take up a new initiative to revive SMEs of which outstanding debt not exceeding Rs 300 million in each entity since recently announced tax reform initiatives provide substantial savings to all banks including the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The government expects the banks to use part of such savings to revive the SME sector on a priority basis.

The directives from the President and the Prime Minister also incorporates redresses to small and medium scale paddy millers as well since the government expect them to re-energise their milling operation to improve the competitiveness in the market and expects their capacities to be active in 2019/20 Maha season

This concessionary action will be followed by a comprehensive package coupled with already announced tax concessions designed by the Ministry of Finance, Economy and Policy Development and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, which will support both the lender and the borrowers - especially the SME sector.

Comments - 4

Nimal Saturday, 21 December 2019 05:09 PM

Why not consider Govt. pensioners who have taken small loans against their meger pensions in their struggle to survive.

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Parakrama Perera Saturday, 21 December 2019 05:44 PM

A most welcome move by the new administration which the predecessors never understood however much we screamed for our survival. If these proposed assistance to troubled SME sector continues/implements as it says, we can assure our economy will turnaround within a very short period. In fact I was planning to close down highly viable export oriented 100% environment friendly two new projects started in 2018 and move out of the country purely due to adamant extreme pubic sector bureaucracy and lack of proper financial assistance. Excellency the President and the Hon Prime Minister we thank you'll for giving us some hope.

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jay Saturday, 21 December 2019 07:52 PM

very good and will be an incentive to those who have had difficulties with SME and those who wish to engage in such projects. The facility must be effective form 18th November 2019 to match the election promise

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Sam Sunday, 22 December 2019 03:32 PM

Who is going to pay for this loans? Is it banks or central bank which ultimately general public has to foot the bill? To my knowledge this is bad finances. All the crooks who obtains loans with bogus claims will be benifited if not carefully evaluate it case by case.

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