Firms are expecting new policies to help them access supporting loans more easily. (Photo: VNA)Enterprises areexpecting the circular to help them gain access to more supporting loans.
The draftrevises Circular 03/2021/TT-NHNN dated April 2, 2021, which regulates therestructuring of debt repayment terms, and exemption and reduction of interestrates and fees to support customers affected by the pandemic.
The revisedcircular has two main changes. First, the debt restructuring period will beextended to June 30, 2022, instead of the original plan of December 31, 2021.Secondly, the repayment terms will be restructured for customers in lockdownregions.
Most firms inHo Chi Minh City, who have had to suspend production and businessoperations to prevent the pandemic, said they expected banks to freeze debtsand reduce interest rates on existing debts.
At the sametime, firms expect banks to deploy new loan packages with preferentialinterest rates and simple procedures to support businesses to overcome thisdifficult period.
According to LyKim Chi, Chairwoman of the HCM City Food and Foodstuff Association (FFA), dueto too high costs in maintaining production and business, local firms are indire need of priority to get bank loans to stabilise production and avoidrisk of supply chain disruption.
As thepandemic affects all economic sectors, Chi suggested the SBV consider allowingdebt rescheduling for all firms in the city so that they do not have to paydebts for at least the next six months.
However, Chisaid the support policies needed to simplify the procedures and documentsrequired to prove firms qualify for the incentives. The bottleneck waspreventing many firms from being able to access support policies frombanks.
The FFA alsorecommended the SBV add firms in specific industries such as food andfoodstuffs to the list of beneficiaries of new loan policies with loan interestexemption and reduction and rapid disbursement to help supplementcapital to stockpile raw materials and finished products for reserves.
Some firmsalso proposed the SBV consider restructuring debts arising after June 10,2020 due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. According to the provisions ofCircular 03/2021/TT-NHNN, banks can only restructure debts arising before June10, 2020, so debts disbursed after the time are at risk of beingclassified as bad debts if firms fail to handle them on time.
Real estatefirms are also facing a cash flow disruption and the risk of losing liquidity.Therefore, HCM City Real Estate Association (HOREA) has also proposed thatthe SBV revise the draft circular.
HOREA proposedthe SBV allow credit institutions, commercial banks and foreign bank branchesto consider and decide on the rescheduling of debt repayment, exemptionand reduction of interest and fees, and keeping debt classification unchangedas well as considering giving new loans to real estate firms.
It wouldprovide more practical support for firms including those in real estate,who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, to reduce borrowing costs, inputcosts, and access new loans to have more time to gradually restore productionand business.
In addition,as the average deposit interest rate remains significantly low, HOREAexpects the SBV to ask commercial banks to consider reducing lendinginterest rates by 2 per cent per year for borrowers to make the lending ratereasonable and ensure the harmonisation of interest for borrowers andlenders./.
VNA
