February 10: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has adopted liberal policy with an objective of providing some relief to the borrowers. The central bank has given some relief to the borrowers by publishing a half-yearly review of the monetary policy of the current fiscal year, 2022/23 on Friday.    

The central bank has made an arrangement so that banks cannot take penalty interest till mid-June 2023 if a borrower makes payment of loans along with interest within a month after the expiry of the deadline, reads the review.    

Likewise, there is a provision that loans up to Rs 20 million floated through banks and financial institutions to facilitate to small and medium industries and businesses can be restructured within July 16 after analysing their cash flow and incomes.    

The monetary policy had mandated commercial banks to invest at least 11 percent of their total loans in agriculture sector, sic percent in energy sector and 11 percent in micro, cottage and small scale industries (less than Rs 10 million loans including deprived sector lending).

The mid-term review states that commercial banks have invested 13  percent in agriculture (Rs 543.47 billion), 6.3 percent in energy sector (Rs 262.55 billion) and 9.5 percent in micro, cottage and small scale industries (Rs 396.91 billion) as of mid-December 2022.

While issuing the mid-term review of the monetary policy, NRB stated that the monetary policy of the current fiscal year had set a target of increasing foreign exchange reserves that can  support imports for seven months. The mid-term review states that the central bank has exceeded this target as the foreign exchange reserves of the country can support imports for 9.1 months.

The mid-term review also states that there has been a general improvement in the economy in the first six months of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

However, the average inter-bank rate, which was 4.77 percent in mid-December to mid-January a year ago has increased to 7.73 percent in the corresponding period of this year. The average inter-bank rate was 7.01 percent in mid-July last year.