Govt. offers collateral-free loans to NP entrepreneurs

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera who is in Jaffna overseeing the implementation of the entrepreneurship loan scheme to young people in the Northern Province yesterday held series of meetings with war-affected people in order to help them make use of the opportunity under the Enterprise Sri Lanka exhibition.

In the morning, he met members of war widows and the small and medium-sized entrepreneurs associations at the Jaffna Kachcheri .

He also held a separate meeting with the ex-combatants at the Jaffna Kachcheri. 

Finance Ministry Secretary R.H.S. Samaratunga, Senior Deputy Secretary to Treasury R. Despariya and Jaffna District Secretary N.Vedanayagam were also present at the discussion.
Samaraweera announced at this meeting that the government has decided to offer interest subsidized loans up to Rs.1.5 million under the Enterprise Sri Lanka loan scheme without collateral.  So he said that there is no need for war widows and ex-combatants to look for two surety guarantees.

The minister emphasized that the government was mindful of the hardships faced by the people in the North during the last thirty years and especially the hardships faced by the women led families.

The minister also said that the Cabinet of Ministers had approved a proposal to pay a monthly allowance of Rs.6000 to each family of missing persons. 

He instructed the members of the missing persons to obtain the Certificate of Absence in the name of their missing persons from the office of Missing Persons to be qualified for this payment, which is to be paid from November 01.