#DoingOurBit, Banks and financial companies work together in rebuilding Kerala!

Thiruvananthapuram, August 30: The government on Wednesday took several measures on the banking and financial front, including a concessional loan for rebuilding houses, to provide relief to the people in flood-ravaged Kerala. 

Financial Services Secretary Rajeev Kumar, in a series of tweets on relief measures for Keralites, said the National Housing Bank (NHB) will provide Rs. 200 crore housing loan at a concessional interest rate, and announced other support measures in banking.

The relief measures include moratorium up to one year and installment rescheduling for home loans as per the need. Top-up loans can be availed for house repair. There will be no penal interest and no compounding of interest during the moratorium period.

There will be no charges for duplicate passbooks, deposit receipts, account statements, issuing fresh debit cards, cancellation and issuance of cheque-books, and issuance of photo-affixed passbooks in case of loss of KYC documents, among others.

Further, no charges will be levied for non-maintenance of minimum balance or other charges for distress relief assistance received from the government through Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT). Besides, while there will be no ATM charges, the ATM withdrawal limit has been increased.

Other relief measures taken for facilitating banking in flood-affected Kerala include the exchange of soiled, mutilated and defective notes at all branches of banks and soggy, pulpy notes to be collected with name, address and account details, to be sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Apart from this the HDFC bank also announced adopting 30 villages in flood-affected Kerala to set up medical camps, rebuild health centers and support renovation and reconstruction of schools.

It will also donate 10 crore rupees for relief efforts in the state. It also announced a waiver for late payment fees on monthly loan installments and credit cards for August to its customers in the state.