Kathmandu. The government has started returning the money to small savers of the troubled cooperatives. The Troubled Cooperative Management Committee today returned the amount of 378 small savers of three cooperatives.

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

According to the committee, although the money was returned to the savers with a small amount on the first day, it will now be gradually categorized and returned on the basis of the amount of the savers. According to the committee, about Rs 46 billion has to be returned to the savings of about 76,000 savers of the problematic cooperatives. Most of them are small savers.

Savings of less than five lakh rupees are categorized as small savers and those above five lakh are categorized as large savers. Of the total 76,000 saved, only 18,000 are those who save more than Rs 500,000, according to the committee. Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Pratibha Rawal, said that the work of recovering loans from cooperatives for repayment of savings was also going on in full swing.

According to him, the borrowers are now repaying the loans after the loans of the problematic cooperatives were made public. According to the Troubled Cooperative Management Committee, the borrowers of the troubled cooperatives have now repaid more than Rs 2 crore loan.

The committee has stated that loan recovery and recovery of savings will go hand in hand.