Review the Arunachal Pradesh Money Lending Regulation Bill 2018- SHCC
Itanagar
The money lending groups here under the banner of the Self Help Core Committee (SHCC) today demanded the state government to review the Arunachal Pradesh Money Lending Regulation Bill 2018 which was passed by the Arunachal Pradesh legislative assembly on March 16.
The SHCC in a press conference at Arunachal press club here also appealed to the governor to not give his assent to the bill till it is reviewed. The committee stated that the “implementation of the bill will be a complete miscarriage of justice”.
Addressing the media, SHCC chairperson Tunun Soki informed that many borrowers are reluctant to repay the loan amount after the bill was passed by the assembly.
She said that they are ready to get registered with the state government and even ready to get licence by the administration in this regard which would be source of revenue generation and said that it would be good initiative of the government to regulate the system of money lending if the bill is passed while incorporating their suggestions.
Soki, however, made it clear that the existing borrowers will have to repay the loan amount as per the agreement made during the borrowing.
She added that if the state government review’s the Bill then they are also open to the suggestion of fixing an interest rate for which they will have a prior discussion with all the stakeholders.
Informing that there are 158 groups in capital complex alone who lend money as a group which are known to them, Soki said that the provision of imposing fine of Rs 5 lakh and imprisonment of lenders for five years is an injustice to the lenders and system should be there for the borrower as we never go to lend money to anyone, they come to lender in their emergency for medical and other emergency purpose like school admission, education and other important purpose and the lender charge rate varied depend on requirement and person to person. However the rate of interest is bit higher in case of tender and using in business but in not in case of medical and emergency purpose. The funds are collected among themselves and utilise it by lending to needy person but in many case and difficulty situation in medical case the money did not received and they did not ask due to many reason which one can understand.
This is not only a business but one type of employment and source of supporting family members of the lender.
Soki said that if the Bill is implemented without being reviewed then it will have a harsh impact on the needy persons as banks don’t give out loans overnight.
Stating that interest collected from the loan is the only source of income for most of the money lenders who mostly are a group of women and unemployed, the committee said that if the state government don’t review the Bill then they will make public the list of borrowers.
