The Andhra Pradesh government will deposit an amount of ₹1,353.76 crore into the bank accounts of 1,05,13,365 eligible women of 9.48 lakh self-help groups towards interest reimbursement on August 11.
The amount will be released by Chief Minster Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at a programme to be conducted at Amalapuram in Konaseema district, according to an official release.
With this, the government has so far disbursed ₹4,969.05 crore under the ‘YSR Sunna Vaddi’ scheme.
With a view to relieving the SHGs from the interest burden on the loans obtained and repaid on time, the State government is bearing the interest component and remitting the amount on their behalf directly into the bank accounts of the SHGs under the ‘YSR Sunna Vaddi’ scheme.
With an objective to empower women, the government had signed MoUs with reputed companies and banks for ensuring sustainable financial development through schemes such as Cheyutha, Kapu Nestham, EBC Nestham, and Aasara, the release added.
The government had persuaded banks to reduce the interest rates, which resulted in a reduction of interest burden on SHGs to the tune of ₹1,224 crore. This facilitated 99.67% loan recovery and helped SHG women achieve stable incomes with sustainable livelihood opportunities.
A total of 16,44,029 women benefited till date and receiving an additional income of ₹7,000 to ₹10,000 per month.
The tie-up with Amul increased the competition in the market, thus enabling dairy farmers to receive an additional income of up to ₹20 per litre of milk.
The previous government had broken its promise of waiving off SHG women’s loans, the release said. This had resulted in a majority of SHGs becoming defunct, the release added.
Due to non-payment of loans by the SHGs, the debts (both the principal and interest amounts) had escalated to ₹25,571 crore by 2019 from ₹14,204 crore in 2014 as per the report of the SLBC, the release said.
As a result of the previous government’s negligent attitude, 18.36% SHGs had become NPAs, and most of the SHGs turned extinct.
The defunct SHGs had been reactivated with timely repayment of interest every year by the YSRCP government, the release claimed. The number of SHGs had risen to 11.16 lakh from the previous 8.71 lakh, the release said.
