Kathmandu, May 19: The government has started returning the money of small depositors of problematic cooperatives.
On the first day, the Office of the Problematic Cooperative Management Committee returned deposits to 378 small depositors from three cooperatives on Monday.
According to the committee, 215 depositors from Kantipur Cooperative, 156 from Shiva Shikhar Multipurpose Cooperative, and seven from Pashupati Cooperative received their savings back.
Although refunds were made today for depositors with smaller savings, the process will now continue in phases based on classification of deposit amounts, it said.
According to the committee, around 76,000 depositors of troubled cooperatives are owed about Rs. 46 billion in total savings. Most of them are small depositors.
Depositors have been categorised into two groups: small savers with deposits under Rs. 500,000 and large savers with deposits above that threshold.
Out of the total 76,000 depositors, 18,000 depositors have deposited more than Rs. 500,000, according to the committee.
Minister for Land Management, Co-operatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration Pratibha Rawal said that loan recovery is also being carried out rapidly to facilitate the refund process.
According to her, after the names of borrowers from problematic cooperatives were made public, they have started repaying their loans.
The Office of the Problematic Cooperative Management Committee said that debtors of troubled cooperatives have already repaid more than Rs. 20 million.
The committee said that loan recovery and deposit refunds will proceed simultaneously.
