The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : CPI leader calls for review of MFI Bill

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Sunday, Jun 10, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

CPI leader calls for review of MFI Bill

Special Correspondent

Draft Bill makes no mention of interest rates, says Gurudas Dasgupta

MATTER OF INTEREST: Justice (retd) B. Subhashan Reddy greets Gurudas Dasgupta, MP, at a meeting in Hyderabad on Saturday. — PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

HYDERABAD: The Communist Party of India has demanded that the Central Government take steps to review Micro Financial Sector (Development & Regulation) Bill, 2007, since it has several deficiencies.

The draft Bill does not mention about interest rates that will be charged by Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) and it proposes to deal leniently with erring MFIs. "If the Bill is made into an Act, it will not provide for cheap and easy credit to rural women and self-help groups," CPI Parliamentary Party leader Gurudas Dasgupta said at a workshop convened by Andhra Pradesh Mahila Samakhya here on Saturday. Mr. Dasgupta is a member of the Standing Committee of Parliament to which the Bill was referred.

He said while a strong mechanism for reaching out credit facilities to rural poor was envisaged through MFIs, they were indulging in profit-making charging "outrageous" interest rates, which exceeded 48 per cent.

State Human Rights Commission chairman B. Subhashan Reddy and CPI MP Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy also spoke.

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