National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC), Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and Punjab National Bank (PNB) signed MOU to facilitate concessional credit to Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) on all India basis here. Chairman-cum-Managing Director, NHFDC, Shri Harsh Bhal and Shri S.S Bhatia, General Manager, PNB signed on the MOU.

As per MOU, NHFDC will refinance to the PNB in respect of disbursement of loan to PwDs for self-employment for those activities which are covered under Credit Guarantee Scheme of CGTMSE of the Government. In addition, NHFDC will also refinance the education loan for higher education to PwDs. The arrangement will be of great help to the students with disabilities who wish to pursue higher education after taking education loan.

NHFDC concessional credit to PwDs is available upto Rs. 25 lac on rate of interest ranging between 4% to 8%. A special rebate of 1% is available across the board to women beneficiaries. The education loan for higher education for study in India and abroad is available at the interest rate of 4%. The loan is available upto Rs. 10 lac for study in India and upto Rs. 20 lac for study at abroad. In case of female student the rate of interest is only @ 3.5% p.a. The education loan of NHFDC will now be available to PwDs through all branches of PNB at almost 1/3rd of the market interest rate.

NHFDC has so far tied up with three public sector banks (Andhra Bank, IDBI Bank and Bank of Baroda) and 24 Regional Rural Banks in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. NHFDC has also tied up with North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) for extending financial assistance to PwDs in entire North Eastern Region. Both these tie ups are under Credit Guarantee Scheme of CGTMSE.

PNB has around 5900 branches throughout the country and have a strong presence in northern region of the country. It was decided to focus first on the education loan to students with disabilities to begin with as the academic session has just started.

Present on the occasion were Shri C.S. Pasricha, DGM, PNB, Shri U.N Agarwal, AGM, PNB, Shri A.K. Dey, DGM, NHFDC and Dr Vineet Rana, Manager(Project) NHFDC.

source: http://www.pib.nic.in / Press Information Burea, Government of India / from Ministry of Socal Justice and Empowerment / Ref: RTS/HSN . release ID:96403 / June 04th, 2013