Fiscal Nepal
First Business News Portal in English from Nepal
Balen Prativa coop refund
KATHMANDU: The government has begun returning savings to small depositors of crisis-hit cooperatives, marking the first phase of repayments aimed at addressing Nepal’s prolonged cooperative sector crisis.
The Problematic Cooperative Management Committee on Monday refunded savings to 378 small depositors from three troubled cooperatives.
According to the committee, 215 depositors of Kantipur Cooperative, 156 depositors of Shiv Shikhar Multipurpose Cooperative, and seven depositors of Pashupati Cooperative received their savings back on the first day of disbursement.
Officials said the initial phase prioritized depositors with smaller savings balances, while repayments will gradually continue through a classification system based on deposit size.
The committee estimates that nearly 76,000 depositors across problematic cooperatives are awaiting refunds totaling around Rs 46 billion (Rs 4,600 crore).
Most affected savers are categorized as small depositors. Under the government’s classification, individuals with savings of less than Rs 500,000 (Rs 5 lakh) are considered small depositors, while those with deposits exceeding that threshold fall into the large depositor category.
Out of the total affected depositors, around 18,000 individuals reportedly have savings exceeding Rs 500,000.
Speaking on the repayment process, Pratibha Rawal, Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, said efforts to recover loans from problematic cooperatives are also being intensified to support depositor repayments.
According to the minister, public disclosure of cooperative loan defaulters has encouraged borrowers to begin repaying outstanding amounts.
The committee said borrowers of troubled cooperatives have already returned more than Rs 20 million (Rs 2 crore) in loans, adding that loan recovery and savings refunds will continue simultaneously.
The cooperative crisis has emerged as one of Nepal’s biggest financial governance challenges in recent years, affecting tens of thousands of depositors and triggering widespread public concern over savings security, financial oversight, and accountability in the cooperative sector.
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