KFC will promote MSME entrepreneurs: Pinarayi Vijayan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Financial Corporation (KFC) aims at promoting entrepreneurs in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector by offering high quality financial services, including competitive products and top-rated customer service, CM Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Wednesday.
Inaugurating the KFC conclave organized as part of revamping the organisation, the chief minister said the corporation's credit policy was being revamped and streamlined.He said the credit appraisal system will be centralised, thereby enabling the corporation to select credit-worthy projects by evaluating their business prospects and disturbing funds in an appropriate manner.
The conclave decided to reduce the base rate of the interest of the corporation to 9.5% from the existing 14.5%, by which the corporation expects to attract more entrepreneurs. The corporation is also expecting to reduce its non-performing assets which will help it to avail financial assistance from banks and other financial institutions.
As part of strengthening its marketing and appraisal of loan proposals, the KFC will launch three hubs to begin with at Kozhikode, Ernakulam and Kollam. The loan proposals cleared will be considered by the corporation's chairman and managing director and the applicants will be informed within seven days. Once given clearance, the loans will be disbursed in 30 days.
The corporation has decided to settle long-pending loans through a loan settlement 'adalat' and has received 480 applications seeking one-time settlement of loans that will fetch Rs 170 crore for the corporation. In the 'adalat' held on Tuesday, 300 closure applications were processed. The remaining applications will be cleared in another sitting to be held on Friday. Once settled, the defaulters will be given two months for repayment of the sum. The KFC has 2,000 defaulting loan accounts worth Rs 700 crore. The corporation plans to clean up the balance sheet in the next two years and once these have been closed, it will disburse fresh loans to competitive clients. The KFC has also been planning to set up a marketing division as part of its facelift measures.
KFC sources said at present, the corporation's customers mostly include those who have not been able to avail loans from mainstream banks. Reducing the base rate of loans will help the corporation to compete with mainstream banks. It is the first time that the corporation has conducted an 'adalat' to settle long-pending cases.