Sri Lanka's finance minister, Mangala Samaraweera said on Wednesday that the government would write off micro-finance loans to women up to Rs 100,000 in certains including the North-East as well as Anuradhapura, and the president's home town of Polonnaruwa.
“This scheme will initially be limited to women who have obtained microfinance loans for non-consumption purposes in the drought-affected districts of Trincomalee, Ampara, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mannar, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa where cultivations were affected consecutively for five seasons,” Mr Samaraweera was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.
“The General Treasury will reimburse the loss incurred by the microfinance companies for having written off the capital component of the loans. The government has allocated Rs 500 million for this year to initiate the reimbursement programme. The microfinance companies will have to absorb the interest component of the loans written off," he added.
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