KATHMANDU:- The government has started refunding the money of small savers of troubled cooperatives. The Troubled Cooperative Management Committee has refunded the money of 378 small savers of three cooperatives today.

According to the committee, 215 small savers of Kantipur Cooperative, 156 of Shiva Shikhar Multipurpose Cooperative and seven of Pashupati Cooperative have received their savings back.

Although the amount was returned to savers with small savings on the first day, now everyone will be returned after being classified based on the amount of savings, the secretariat of Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration Pratibha Rawal has said.

According to the committee, about 46 billion rupees will have to be returned to about 76,000 savers of troubled cooperatives. Most of them are small savers, the secretariat said.

Those who save less than Rs. 500,000 have been classified as small savers and those who save more than Rs. 500,000 have been classified as large savers. Out of the total 76,000, 18,000 have saved more than Rs. 500,000, the committee said.

Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Pratibha Rawal said that the work of recovering the loans of cooperatives to return the savings is being done rapidly. According to her, now that the names of the loans of problematic cooperatives have been made public, the borrowers are now starting to return the loans.

According to the Problematic Cooperative Management Committee, borrowers of problematic cooperatives have now repaid loans worth more than Rs 20 million. The committee has stated that debt recovery and savings return will move forward together.