Kathmandu: The government has begun returning savings to small depositors affected by troubled cooperatives across Nepal.
The Problematic Cooperative Management Committee on Monday initiated refunds for 378 small depositors from three crisis-hit cooperatives.
According to the committee, 215 depositors from Kantipur Cooperative, 156 from Shiv Shikhar Multipurpose Cooperative, and seven from Pashupati Cooperative received their savings back on the first day of the refund process.
The committee said priority was initially given to depositors with smaller balances, while future repayments will be made in phases based on the size of deposits.
Officials estimate that around Rs 46 billion must be returned to nearly 76,000 depositors linked to problematic cooperatives, the majority of whom are classified as small savers.
Depositors with savings below Rs 500,000 have been categorized as small depositors, while those with savings above that threshold are considered large depositors. Out of the total 76,000 affected savers, only around 18,000 fall into the large depositor category.
Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Pratibha Rawal said the government has also intensified efforts to recover loans issued by troubled cooperatives to facilitate repayments.
According to the minister, many borrowers have started repaying their loans after their names were publicly disclosed.
The Problematic Cooperative Management Committee stated that more than Rs 20 million in outstanding loans has already been recovered from borrowers of crisis-hit cooperatives.
The committee said loan recovery and depositor repayments will continue simultaneously in the coming days.
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