Lowest loan interest rates from People's Bank

by Jayasiri MUNASINGHE

People's bank has decided to give loans for agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries at the lowest rates offered by a commercial bank in the country.

Chief Executive Officer and General Manager P. V. Pathirana said that the interest for loans in the sectors of agriculture, dairy development and fisheries will be as low as 9.5 percent per annum.

He said that the bank decided to give loans at low interest rates to support and ensure that the per capita income reaches $ 4000 by the year 2015 under the Mahinda Chinthana Idiri Dekma.

In addition to the loans given to increase production in the agriculture and dairy development sectors loans will be given at an interest rate of 10 percent to increase export related activities. Pathirana said that the bank embarked on this program with the support of president Mahinda Rajapaksa, Treasury secretary Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and chairman of Peoples Bank W. Karunajeewa.

As the tourism and hospitality sector has been identified as a priority sector for development and any person investing in this sector can get loans for a interest of 11 percent, said Pathirana.

In addition customers of People's Bank from today can obtain any loan and the interest rate will be one percent lower than before.

People's bank has given Rs. 1.5 bln to the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) to purchase the paddy harvest of the Yala season.

Chief Executive Officer and General Manager P. V. Pathirana said that People's Bank expects that this loan will be used to ensure that farmers get a high price for its paddy.

The government led by President Rajapaksa took steps to re open the PMB and the. People's bank has been able to support the PMB due to the financial policy of the government.