Kollam: Even as the Union budget did not offer anything to revive the private cashew sector, the state government will implement a cashew revival package before July 31.
This was decided at a meeting held by Minister J. Mercykkutty Amma with the State-Level Bankers’ Committee and the private cashew processors. The strategies for funding the processing units to restart their operations were finalised at the meeting.
As per the package, the penalty for defaults in current loans by the processors will be avoided. There will be provision to repay the existing bank loans and working capital in instalments for a revised interest rate of nine per cent on a long- term basis.
The nine per cent interest rate for new loans will be repaid by the government. The interest subsidy has been planned for a year now but may be extended if necessary.
The South Indian Bank has offered to give revival loans to 23 private cashew firms, Federal Bank to 34 and Catholic Syrian Bank to 27, according to the minister.
Seven companies that have been given to the asset reconstruction committee by the banks will be released to the owners. The meeting decided to gi ve a letter to the asset rec onstruction committee chairman and managing director regarding this.
Currently, some 700 cashew factories in the private sector remain shut due to financial crunch while 173 of them have been declared as Non-Performing Assets (NPA) facing recovery procedures.
Some 3.5 lakh cashew employees are either fully jobless or part-time workers after the crisis gripped the industry. They are also deprived of social security benefits, including provident fund and employees’ state insurance, as the employees lack mandatory working days.
