Jaffna: Interest rate down to 9%

by Shirajiv Sirimane

In response to a request made by the Jaffna Business community, the Central Bank has decided to reduce the current lending interest rates.

The Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal who visited Jaffna last Tuesday to open a DFCC bank and several other banks also met the business community who requested him to lower the interest rates. Subsequently it was decided to lower the 12 percent interest rate under the Reawakening North credit scheme to 9 percent.

The Central Bank has introduced two special loan schemes, “Awakening North” for the Northern Province and “Development of the East” for the Eastern Province with the purpose of providing credit facilities for capital investment to facilitate the resumption of economic activities relating to agriculture, livestock, fisheries and micro and small enterprises.

The maximum limit of each loan will be Rs. 200,000 per borrower. The maximum repayment period for credit taken under this scheme is five years with a grace period of six months.

The credit could be obtained from branches of Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank, Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank, Seylan Bank, SANASA Development Bank, Sampath Bank and DFCC Bank. Over Rs. 1.5 million credit has been already provided under this scheme. “We have already received applications to the tune of Rs. 1.5 billion and these would be disbursed by end of February,” Central Bank official said.