Kathmandu. A meeting with stakeholders at the Department of Cooperatives has decided not to charge more than 1 percent service fee. The Department of Cooperatives has instructed all the cooperatives not to charge more than 1 percent interest on the loans disbursed by the cooperatives. As per the service fee prescribed by the department with effect from January 1, cooperatives will not be allowed to charge more than 1 percent service fee from the debtor.

The directive issued by the Department of Cooperatives states that the department has made a new arrangement that the cooperatives will not be allowed to charge any additional fee in addition to the agreed amount of interest on the loan disbursed to the members. From January 1, they will not be allowed to charge more than 1 percent of the total loan.

The service fee has been fixed by the department as per Article 50 (3) of paragraph 7 of the Cooperatives Act, 2074 BS and Article 76 (1) (i) of the Rules. Provision has been made not to charge any additional fee such as additional processing fee and administration fee for charging interest and service fee of the loan.