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Goa banks seeks RBI relaxation on 'mining dependent' loans

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Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar
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Banks and financial institutions in Goa plan to write to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to relax certain rules to waive interest and 'adjust' loans issued to mining dependent people whose borrowings are likely to turn into bad debts.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar chaired a meeting of banking institutions including co-operative banks, nationalised banks and urban banks to decide on a whopping loans of around Rs 800-1,000 crore left unpaid after the state's mining activity stopped in September 2012.

Parrikar told reporters that banking institutions have decided to write to the RBI to relax certain norms so that the adjustments could be worked out to make repayments easier and affordable. "Banks have some technical difficulties. Today we adopted a resolution asking the RBI to address these technical difficulties. If required, the state government will also seek RBI intervention. We have requested them to relax certain norms," the Chief minister said. He said that nowhere in the country where such crises have taken place and the government had intervened to resolve problems of people who are affected by it.

The Chief Minister said that the state government's future course of action to address the problem would be pronounced during the forthcoming State Legislative Assembly session on July 24. The Goa Chief Minister said that besides banks offering concessions like interest waiver or certain percentages of principal amount waiver, the state government would also chip in with funding. "What exactly would be the formula adopted by the government to help people repay their loans would be announced in the Goa assembly," Parrikar said. 

He said that nationalised banks have indicated that they would bear 30 per cent of the principal amounts and waive off interest upto September this year (when mining is expected to resume). "We have requested them to waive off up to 50 per cent. Once that amount is identified, the government package will step in," the Chief Minister explained. The state government has decided to help those who are ready to pay the entire amount upfront after the concessions. "Solution will be provided to everyone but priority would be given to the people who are ready to pay the amount upfront. It's like one time settlement," he said.

The Chief Minister said that the government will provide relief to each and every person who is affected from the ban on the mining industry. "I will provide relief to each and every person who is impacted by mining provided he can prove to me that he is impacted. If auto spare part shop which is suffered due to stoppage of mining needs help, it would be provided to him but he will not be on the priority list. "Step by step help will be provided and by December this year at least 90 per cent of the population who are impacted would be covered," he said. 

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