KATHMANDU, May 18: The government has started refunding deposits to small savers affected by crisis-hit cooperatives in Nepal, marking the first phase of a long-awaited repayment process.
According to the Problematic Cooperatives Management Committee, savings were returned to 378 small depositors on the first day of the initiative. Among them, 215 were linked to Kantipur Cooperative, 156 to Shiv Shikhar Multipurpose Cooperative, and seven to Pashupati Cooperative.
The committee said priority was initially given to depositors with smaller savings amounts. Authorities plan to gradually continue repayments by categorizing savers based on the size of their deposits.
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Officials estimate that around Rs 46 billion must be returned to nearly 76,000 depositors associated with troubled cooperatives across the country. Depositors with savings below Rs 500,000 have been classified as small savers, while those with deposits above that threshold are categorized as large depositors. Of the total affected savers, around 18,000 fall into the large depositor category.
Pratibha Rawal said efforts to recover loans from cooperative borrowers have also intensified to support the repayment process. According to her, many borrowers have started repaying loans after their names were made public.
The committee stated that more than Rs 20 million in outstanding loans has already been recovered from borrowers of problematic cooperatives.
Authorities said loan recovery and depositor repayments will continue simultaneously in the coming days.
