SBI mulling restructuring loans for Fani-affected people

Surjit Kumar Dhal,BHUBANESWAR, JUNE 7: Extending support to its borrowers affected by the extremely severe cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ that hit the Odisha coast on May 3 leaving behind trails of devastation, country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) today reiterated its commitment to effect loan restructuring soon.

Talking to media persons at a press conference here today, SBI Managing Director (Retail & Digital Banking) Praveen Kumar Gupta said, ““As lots of people have suffered heavy loss due to cyclone Fani, our immediate responsibility is to restructure the loan taken by those people. All our branches in the affected areas have been instructed to effect restructuring process immediately.”

 SLBC and all the banks have together made the re-structuring scheme. Accordingly, all the existing loans will be re-structured. The moratorium period has been fixed at 12 months as of now, and no interest will be charged on the loan amount for this period.

SBI has provided more than 11,000 loans amounting to nearly Rs 120 crore so far for rehabilitation and resumption of livelihood activities of people in districts affected by cyclone Fani. The bank has also provided over 8,000 agri loans and more than 1,300 loans to Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the cyclone-hit areas. SBI has also restructured 200 SME and house building loans, Gupta said adding SBI would provide loans to 500 fishermen for purchasing boats and nets.

Speaking about the restoration of SBI branches and ATMS, Gupta said, “Most of our branches are now functional. Some ATMS can’t function in absence of power supply and internet connectivity. We are working on that to make those ATMs functional as soon as possible.”

Reiterating SBI’s commitment towards the development of Odisha, “Now it’s the time to rebuild Odisha and SBI is a partner in the process.” “SBI is to lend in tune with the commitment given to SLBC during this financial year. SBI has major contributions in MUDRA loan, SME, KCC, farm mechanizations and allied advances,” he added.