Maheshwar Paudel, registrar at DoC, told myrepublica.com that they had already requested MoAC to depute four experts to conduct study on current financial health of saving and credit co-operatives operating in different parts of the country. [break]
DoC has been facing human resources crunch to conduct proper monitoring of the mushrooming co-operatives across the country.
“Necessary budget for the monitoring purpose has already been sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance. We will expedite the monitoring of financial health and lending process of saving and credit co-operatives once the MoAC deputes experts as per our request,” Paudel said.
Issuing a 15-day public notice on January 3, DoC has already invited tender from interested firms to assist DoC in studying the financial position of the saving and credit co-operatives and suggest the government appropriate measures to monitor them.
The DoC officials said that they would soon look into the financial health of least 40 credit co-operatives -- 20 each from the capital and outside the capital - in the first phase. Investigation teams from DoC will also study the contribution of saving and co-operatives in term of revenue and employment generation.
In its bid to regulate lending from saving and credit co-operatives, DoC recently issued the first ever financial directives, asking the saving and credit co-operatives to limit their housing and real estate credit exposure to 15 percent of their total loans portfolio by the end of this fiscal year.
As per the directives, the saving and credit co-operatives will have to reduce their real estate and housing loans to 10 percent and 15 percent respectively by mid-July 2010. Around 4,000 of more than 5,000 saving and credit co-operatives operating in the country are concentrated in the capital alone. According to DoC, there are around 15,000 co-operatives across the country.
According to conservative estimate, saving and credit co-operatives have mobilized around Rs 70 billion deposits, two-thirds of which have been invested in the housing and real estate sector alone.
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