|
50 per cent of rural poor in MFI clutches
At least 40 to 50 per cent of the rural poor households across the state are in the grip of the micro finance institutions (MFIs).
The latest information is based on the subscriber database submitted by registered MFIs late on Friday to the state government. As per the data received by the respective registering authorities, the MFIs have given loans worth Rs 9,594.44 crore this year to 74 lakh people in the state. The number could exceed 1.1 crore once a leading MFI submits details about its scale of operations and subscriber base within the next fortnight.
Another startling aspect was the extremely high interest rate (ranging from 21.2 to 60.5 per cent) being charged by MFIs, contrary to the claim by the MFIs’ body that they had decided to keep the rates under 24 per cent in the interest of the public.
As per the latest information, 298 MFIs have registered with the respective registering authorities. The total interest payments received by these companies as on date is Rs 1087.48 crore, while Rs 5,706.23 crore is the principal amount disbursed by the MFIs in the state.
Meanwhile, the state government’s efforts to rein in MFIs have begun to cast a shadow on the credit offtake by the non-farm sector (small traders and petty vendors) with MFIs claiming that they lost an opportunity to help credit-needy sections to an extent of Rs 1,500 during this most important festive season of the year.
These MFIs have claimed that the festive offtake every year would have been almost double the regular disbursals, but for the stringent guidelines in the Andhra Pradesh Micro Finance Institutions (Regulation of money lending) ordinance, 2010.
They said 80 per cent of the credit was sought by the non-farm sector (NFS), which includes both urban and rural areas. Within the urban NFS, credit is primarily sought by people in cloth and kirana business, while in rural NFS it is dairy, mobile vendors like vegetable and fruit, scrap/steel vendors.
They claimed that on an average, they disburse Rs 200 crore to the non-farm sector every week and the current situation had stalled their operations over the four-week period making them lose an opportunity to disburse credit of Rs 800 crore.
A representative of the MFI body said, a conservative estimate on the non-availability of credit to the non-farm sector over this crucial one month-period is in the range of Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 1800 crore. Another Rs 200 crore is lined up with banks, who have been extending loans to MFIs by treating it as a priority sector. This is definitely a huge disappointment to people in need of credit during the most important festive season of the year.
|