Srinagar, Jan 29: Kashmir Traders Alliance and Shehre Khass Traders’ and Manufacturers’ Coordination Committee have asked the J&K Bank to extend the timeframe of OTS-2022 Scheme, lengthening the repayment time and making it applicable to all business loans, regardless of their size.
In a statement to Ziraat Times, KTA President, Aijaz Shahdhar said that it was encouraging to recognise that J&K Bank had, for the first time, introduced a consistent and non-discriminatory programme to settle NPA accounts.
However, it was regrettable that the affected businesses were unable to benefit from the scheme for a variety of reasons, including their inability to secure the necessary resources within the allotted time frame.
Shahdhar said Kashmir’s businesses were victims of events beyond their control, they should not be treated as deliberate defaulters and that their accounts had been classified as NPAs.
He claimed that the poor asset quality of account holders was mostly driven by the frequent business disruptions that burdened the companies with idle setup expenditures, which had a negative impact on their viability and stressed their accounts, finally resulting in NPAs.
Shahdhar requested J&K Bank management to issue an order extending the OTS scheme while keeping in mind the past and present circumstances of the Kashmiri business community so that companies that wish to take advantage of this scheme have enough time.
Shahre Khass Traders and Manufacturers Coordination Committee and Federations, while requesting the J&K Bank MD and CEO Baldev Prakash to extend the time of special OTS scheme said, “We appreciate the said scheme, at the same time the borrowers whose accounts turned NPA because of circumstances which was beyond their control need more consideration”.
“We assure J&K Bank officials there is no willful defaulters in Kashmir and that all our respected traders turned NPAs because of uncertainty. Everybody wants to settle their accounts and repay their debt and they tried hard to sell there properties to settle their accounts”, the statement added.
“But markets are showing very downfall and buyers are not coming to purchase the said properties. Now we at the Shahre Khass Traders and Manufacturers Coordination Committee request J&K Bank MD and CEO Baldew Prakash and all officials to kindly extend the one time settlement scheme with at least by one year and do some modifications in re-payments so that every borrower should get benefited by this scheme”, statement adds.
