By Karuna Thapa
Kathmandu, February 27
Cooperatives now offer a higher maximum interest rate (reference interest rate) on loans.
The Department of Cooperatives has set the reference interest rate at 16 percent, based on the proposal of the committee constituted to examine the reference interest rate.
The reference interest rate was increased at a meeting of the committee convened last Friday. The reference interest rate has been increased, according to the decision, the registrar of the department Rudra Prasad Pandit.
The interest rate was formerly 14.75 percent. The maximum interest rate for cooperatives is called the reference interest rate. Cooperatives will now be authorized to charge up to 16
percent interest on loans. Previously, the department’s registrar, Dr. Tokraj Pandey, the reference interest rate was cut to 14.75 percent.
Deposit interest rates have lately been hiked by banks. The cooperative industry was impacted when banks hiked interest rates. Workers in the cooperative had demanded an increase in the reference interest rate, claiming that even existing deposits were being lost.
The department has increased the cooperative service cost while maintaining the individual
service fee the same. According to Pandit, cooperatives will now be able to levy service fees of up to 1% on the individual side and 1.5 percent on the institutional side.
