The Hindu 20.12.2010
‘Urban coop banks ready to help SHG movement'
Offers aid to SHG members at 12 per cent interest if NABARD refinances at 8 per cent
Over 1,000 SHG members given aid under a pilot scheme
ONGOLE: The urban cooperative banks in the State with their branches are ready to step in to reach credit to needy members of Self Help Groups(SHGs) at a “very reasonable rate of interest'' and rerail the SHG movement in the State.
Informing this to reporters here on Sunday, Andhra Pradesh Urban and Town Cooperative Banks Association president and member of the Task Force on Cooperative Urban Banks in the State Manam Anjaneyulu said the crisis that had gripped the micro-finance sector had forced SHG members to go to private money lenders who charged more than 50 per cent interest.
Enthused by 100 per cent recovery of loans advanced to SHG members in Leguntapadu under the Kovur Bhagyalakshmi Podupu Sangham(KBPS) by the Visakhapatnam Cooperative Bank(VCB), Mr Anjaneyulu, also its chairman, said: “We(UCBs) are ready to offer micro loans to SHG members at 12 per cent interest if the NABARD provides refinance at 8 per cent interest as in case of MFIs''. Under a pilot scheme, the VCB through the KBPS had provided Rs 2.08 crore as loan to 1,082 members of 180 SHGs for “productive purposes'' after verification by VCB staff of viability of the economic activities undertaken by the SHGs concerned. “Small savings culture is very much visible in these parts'', said Mr Anjaneyulu . “The KBPS took the responsibility for recovery of the loans advanced'', he explained, adding “this successful model can be replicated in other parts of the State as well.”
SHG members in five more panchayats in Kovur mandal had approached the VCB for micro-finance, he added.
“We have drawn the attention of NABARD officials to the success of the pilot programme'', said Mr Anjaneyulu, who is also Director of the National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies. Nationalised banks should also provide credit to SHGs through healthy cooperative institutions, including UCBs.
Under no circumstances, the interest rate charged by MFIs should have crossed 18 per cent, he felt.
The loss-making Ongole Urban(OUCB) Cooperative Bank will function in the new year as Visakhapatnam Cooperative Bank(VCB), with the Reserve Bank of India giving green signal for its merger with the latter.
Mr Anjaneyulu said “all formalities are being completed and the 108-year-old OUCB will start functioning from January-end as VCB''
“Now we are going to submit merger scheme to the RBI this week for taking over Tirupati-based Sri Balaji Urban Cooperative Bank'', VCB executive director Chalasani Ragavendra Rao said.
