Dimapur, September 20 (MExN): The Zunheboto Branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) has refuted allegations from the Sumi Hoho that its branch manager is using middlemen to avail loans from the bank. The Zunheboto branch issued a statement today appended by the branch manager, who explained and clarified the loan-availing process.
The branch manager’s statement said the bank has been disbursing personal loans to government officials for the past few years according to norms laid down by the bank. The branch explained – “We are accepting loan files from any permanent government employee who is working under Zunheboto district and whose salary is regularly (minimum 6 months) deposited in his personal Savings Bank Account.”
“We never refused to accept files from any individual whose salary is regularly deposited by the department in his account and as such accepting files only through the middleman/third party absolutely does not arise. Rather we discourage this to avoid any complication in future,” the SBI’s branch said.
The SBI branch however admitted that at times some applicants submit their files through third party but the ‘bank official is in no way connected’ and loans are given only after thorough scrutiny and only eligible cases are ‘sanctioned,’ the bank said.
The SBI branch said further that Zunheboto is a large district while the branch is the only institution which disburses salary in the area. For this reason, there is huge pressure for loans, the bank said. “Since limited budget has been given to this branch this time, we cannot make loan open for all the months and as such loan is open for a limited period as per the instructions of our higher authority,” the statement said.
“Since people are waiting for a long time for the loan, huge number of loan files have been deposited to us when loan is opened in the month of July 2011 and in order to sanction all eligible cases among the files submitted to us the total budget for the whole year has been exhausted. Since we cannot exceed our budget as per the norms we had to stop receiving of files by the end of August 2011 and complete the whole process by the first week of September 2011.”
The bank branch appreciated the Sumi Hoho’s concern and has appealed to them to liaise with the bank officials in the process of loan sanctions so that no miscommunication or misunderstanding crops up in this regard. “We can assure you that no unfair means has been done at the branch in loan sanctioning and we sincerely trying to help people at our best efforts,” the statement added.
The branch manager’s statement said the bank has been disbursing personal loans to government officials for the past few years according to norms laid down by the bank. The branch explained – “We are accepting loan files from any permanent government employee who is working under Zunheboto district and whose salary is regularly (minimum 6 months) deposited in his personal Savings Bank Account.”
“We never refused to accept files from any individual whose salary is regularly deposited by the department in his account and as such accepting files only through the middleman/third party absolutely does not arise. Rather we discourage this to avoid any complication in future,” the SBI’s branch said.
The SBI branch however admitted that at times some applicants submit their files through third party but the ‘bank official is in no way connected’ and loans are given only after thorough scrutiny and only eligible cases are ‘sanctioned,’ the bank said.
The SBI branch said further that Zunheboto is a large district while the branch is the only institution which disburses salary in the area. For this reason, there is huge pressure for loans, the bank said. “Since limited budget has been given to this branch this time, we cannot make loan open for all the months and as such loan is open for a limited period as per the instructions of our higher authority,” the statement said.
“Since people are waiting for a long time for the loan, huge number of loan files have been deposited to us when loan is opened in the month of July 2011 and in order to sanction all eligible cases among the files submitted to us the total budget for the whole year has been exhausted. Since we cannot exceed our budget as per the norms we had to stop receiving of files by the end of August 2011 and complete the whole process by the first week of September 2011.”
The bank branch appreciated the Sumi Hoho’s concern and has appealed to them to liaise with the bank officials in the process of loan sanctions so that no miscommunication or misunderstanding crops up in this regard. “We can assure you that no unfair means has been done at the branch in loan sanctioning and we sincerely trying to help people at our best efforts,” the statement added.
