KATHMANDU: The government has begun the process of returning deposits to small savers affected by troubled cooperatives.
The Problems Cooperatives Management Committee distributed funds to 378 small depositors from three cooperatives on Monday.
According to the committee, deposits were returned to 215 savers of Kantipur Cooperative, 156 savers of Shiv Shikhar Multipurpose Cooperative, and seven savers of Pashupati Cooperative.
Officials said that on the first day, priority was given to depositors with smaller savings, and refunds will now be gradually distributed based on classification of deposit amounts.
The committee said that around 76,000 depositors from troubled cooperatives are owed nearly Rs 46 billion in total deposits, with the majority being small savers.
Depositors have been categorized into two groups: small savers with deposits below Rs 500,000 and large savers with deposits above that threshold. Of the total depositors, around 18,000 fall into the large saver category.
Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Pratibha Rawal said efforts to recover loans from cooperatives are also being intensified to facilitate timely refund of savings.
She said that after the names of borrowers were made public, many have started repaying their loans.
The committee said that more than Rs 20 million has already been recovered from borrowers of troubled cooperatives.
Authorities said both loan recovery and deposit refunds will proceed simultaneously as part of the ongoing process to address the crisis in the cooperative sector.
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