J&K Bank rolls out rehabilitation package for borrowers affected by disturbance

Srinagar, Dec 15(KMW): Providing relief to the borrowers across the state who suffered due to prolonged disturbance in the valley, J&K Bank today rolled out a comprehensive loan restructuring package.
Announcing the package, J&K Bank Chairman & CEO Parvez Ahmed said, “This is the time to hand hold our customers and provide them the much needed impetus to put their businesses back on the path of recovery and growth.”
“The rehabilitation package was adopted by the Board of Directors of the Bank in a meeting held on 15th December, 2016”, he added.
The package was finalised after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave its approval to the J&K SLBC proposal of restructuring the loans of affected borrowers stressed due to the recent turmoil.
The Chairman further added that the package was customized to not just alleviating the pain of our borrowers by providing the repayment holiday with reduced interest burden but with the provision for additional need-based working capital finance.
“The Bank has tried to ensure that the whole process is made hassle free for the borrowers whose businesses have been derailed by the long spell of disruption in the valley”, he said.
The Chairman conveyed his gratitude to the state government, RBI and the business community who wholeheartedly supported the efforts of J&K Bank as Convener SLBC to provide the much needed rehabilitation package necessary for the revival of businesses in the state.
Notably, the J&K SLBC adopted the package as conveyed by Reserve Bank of India in consonance with the RBI Master Directions on Natural Calamities and asked the member Banks to frame their individual packages for restructuring of loan accounts of affected borrowers.
Discussing the operational details of the package, Chairman said that the Bank shall fund the interest due from the borrowers while deferring the principal repayments in the loan accounts upto a maximum period of 18 months, till December 2017.
Besides, the bank has also substantially reduced the rate of interest to be charged during the repayment holiday on interest funding to 9.5% per annum, he said.
Additional finance, he said, will be sanctioned to affected borrowers upto a maximum of 20% of their existing limits at concessional rate of interest. The farmers who have suffered losses to their crops to the extent of 33% or more are also covered in the package.
The package shall be applicable till February 2017 in accordance with the RBI approval and the borrowers can avail the benefits of the relief package during the applicable period from their respective branches.
Meanwhile, the disturbance in the valley since July this year badly affected the economic activities of all businesses including traders, manufacturers, hotel industry, transporters etc. and these businesses suffered huge economic losses which severely affected their revenue generation capacity.