The Micro-finance Regulatory Authority Act will be presented in Parliament shortly, Samurdhi, Household Economy, Micro Finance, Self-employment, Business Development and Underutilised State Resources Development State Minister Shehan Semasinghe said. The State Minister said that the Act will protect the rural folks from micro-finance agencies and pave the way for low-income earners, around two million, to obtain micro loan facilities on fair condition to improve their livelihoods.
The State Minister said that the Lanka Microfinance Practitioners’ Association has launched a hotline for complaints about the unfair microfinance facilities from reputed and small-scale rural organisations.
The hotline 071-8320000 will be operative from 7 am to 7 pm. The State Minister said that the complaints will be immediately dealt with to provide speedy relief for the complainants. “We have noticed that there are many shortcomings in the Microfinance Act No. 6 of 2016. Some Microfinance Institutes still use English for their loan agreements, interest being levied and so on. Villagers cannot understand those but sign them. Through the new legislation, we will rectify all such issues,” he added.
