The government has announced a separate fund of Rs 50 billion to provide loans to various sectors at 5 percent interest rate.

Finance Minister Presenting the budget for the coming fiscal year, Yuvaraj Khatiwada said that a fund would be set up to pay the wages of the workers and employees of domestic, small and medium enterprises and corona affected tourism businesses and to get loan at 5 percent interest rate for running the business. It is mentioned in such fund run by NRB that the money coming from the government, government-owned public institutions and donor agencies will be kept.

Even the customers of concessional loans that the government has been investing through banks will now be able to get loans at 5 percent interest rate. Earlier, the government had been providing 5 percent interest subsidy on such loans and the banks had been adding their own costs to it. Suppose a bank had a base rate of 10 percent, they would add up to 2 percent to fix the interest rate on the loan. While the government provided 5 percent interest subsidy, the customer had to pay 7 percent.

Although there are nine sectors that provide concessional loans, investment is being made only in women's enterprises and agriculture and animal husbandry loans. The NRB had issued a circular some time ago after such loans were not issued as expected. The budget has again interfered in this by making it mandatory for each branch of a commercial bank to provide such loan to at least 10 people and the development bank to at least 5 people.

Similarly, the refinancing fund to be provided to banks through NRB will be increased to Rs 100 billion. Currently, the refinancing fund has Rs 60 billion. Industries, businesses in agriculture, home, small and medium enterprises, manufacturing industries, hotels, tourism and other sectors will also get refinancing at a concessional interest rate of up to 5 percent. If the refinancing fund is available for one year, NRB can extend the term of such loan by one year as required.