Kathmandu, April 11

The depositors who have obtained loans from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will get 10 per cent waiver on interest for four months.

All kinds of borrowers who have borrowed money from the EPF as home loan, house repair loan, education loan or other revolving loans will get 10 per cent waiver on interest from March 14 to July 15.

This facility is being provided by the EPF to provide relief to its borrowers during this crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rajendra Kafle, joint administrator of EPF, said that the fund has also decided to extend the time to pay the interests by one month after the completion of the ongoing fiscal year. This means that if any borrower has to pay their loan interests by July 15, then they can now pay the loan interests by August 15.

Kafle, however, said that they are still having discussions on whether to provide the one-month extension to both individual and institutional borrowers or only to institutional borrowers.

“We will soon take the final decision on the modality.”

He further said that the decision will also address those who had taken loans from the fund before the government imposed the nationwide lockdown.

“We hope the borrowers will benefit from our decision as most of the businesses and other activities are almost at a standstill now.”

In addition, it has decided to pay Rs 200,000 in compensation to any regular depositor who dies due to the coronavirus.

The EPF has decided to put deaths due to the coronavirus under a similar category as an accidental death.

The EPF is Nepal’s largest financial institution with a wealth of Rs 346 billion and has been running various schemes for its 600,000 customers.

To diversify its investment in different sectors, the government-owned organisation has provided more than Rs 190 billion in loans to the contributors under different headings.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 12, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.