Kathmandu-The government has started returning savings to small depositors of troubled cooperatives.

The Crisis-ridden Cooperative Management Committee refunded savings to 378 small depositors from three cooperatives on the first day today.

According to the committee, 215 depositors from Kantipur Cooperative, 156 from Shiv Shikhar Multipurpose Cooperative, and seven from Pashupati Cooperative received their savings back.

The committee said that although depositors with smaller savings amounts were prioritised on the first day, future refunds will be made gradually based on the classification of deposit amounts.

According to the committee, around Rs46 billion in savings belonging to nearly 76,000 depositors of troubled cooperatives still needs to be refunded. Most of them are small depositors.

Depositors with savings below Rs500,000 have been classified as small depositors, while those with savings above Rs500,000 are categorised as large depositors. Out of the total 76,000 depositors, only 18,000 had savings exceeding Rs500,000, the committee stated.

Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Pratibha Rawal said efforts to recover loans issued by troubled cooperatives are also being intensified to facilitate the refund process.

According to her, borrowers have started repaying loans after the names of cooperative defaulters were made public.

The Crisis-ridden Cooperative Management Committee said borrowers of troubled cooperatives have so far repaid more than Rs20 million in loans.

The committee stated that loan recovery and savings refunds will continue simultaneously.