An urgent arrangement is being made to recover the loan money given by the National Housing Development Authority.
Urban Development and Housing Minister Mr. Prasanna Ranatunga instructed the officials of the National Housing Development Authority today (19) to immediately implement a targeted program to collect 300 million rupees monthly. The loan amount to be recovered by the National Housing Development Authority is 563 million rupees.
The minister gave these instructions at a special workshop held in Kandy to inform the district managers of the National Housing Development Authority regarding the prompt collection of the amount and the future activities of the institution. The workshop was held at Okre Festival Hall, Rajapilla, Kandy.
From 1979, when the National Housing Development Authority started, the total debt to be recovered from the amount of loans given to the people of this country is 10 billion rupees.
Although the monthly amount to be collected is 563 million rupees, the National Housing Development Authority has been able to collect only 127 million rupees by last July. It was revealed in this discussion that it is about 23% as a percentage.
During 2015-2019, all the assets owned by that authority were given loans using money. The general manager of that authority, K.A., said that one of the main reasons for this situation is that the problems of recovery have arisen due to the non-payment of full installments of the loan. Mr. Janaka revealed here. In addition, he said that the covid epidemic, the economic problem and the political instability in the country have caused the collection of these loans to decrease.
The chairman of that authority Mr. Rajeev Suriyarachchi said that the district managers should pay more attention in the near future to recover the debt. He also pointed out that if it is not possible to collect the loan installments properly, the company may not even be able to pay the salaries of the employees.
Accordingly, the chairman said that the goal of the authority is to collect monthly loan installments of 300 million rupees and that is mandatory, and denied the media reports that the authority had organized a party in a hotel in the city.
He said that certain political groups are raising such allegations against the measures taken by the new management to re-strengthen the authority.
The chairman said that there have been many unauthorized residents and unauthorized constructions in the lands owned by the National Housing Development Authority and that immediate action will be taken in this regard.
Minister Prasanna Ranatunga who spoke at this said that the National Housing Development Authority was set up to fulfill the basic need of the people which is housing. The minister said that the unnecessary political interference in this institution led to its collapse and he hopes to rebuild it, adding that new housing projects will be restarted as soon as the current economic crisis recovers.
The minister also instructed the officials to immediately start mobile service programs at the district level to solve housing problems that have not been solved for a long time.
Board members and all district managers of the National Housing Development Authority participated in this workshop.
