The Joint Association of Leasing and Debt Instalment Payers with over 200,000 members says the Government has agreed to extend the grace period to pay due instalments.
“The discussion held with the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry was successful. It was agreed by both parties to extend the grace period on 31 December 2022 to pay loan instalments.
The directive relevant to the decision will be issued by the Central Bank soon. The move will provide great relief to all members of the association,” Joint Association of Leasing and Debt Instalment Payers General Secretary Asanka Ruwan Pothupitiya said.
He also revealed that the negotiations with the Finance Ministry to intervene in the non-compliant methods of acquiring vehicles by force were also successful, adding that they believe all these negotiations have been successful and the leasing and loan instalment payers can breathe a sigh of relief now.
Pothupitiya said as per complaints made against leasing companies over the seizure of vehicles by force, the Police have arrested a group who were involved in such activities and produced them to the court.
The association expressed their appreciation to the Inspector General of Police for punishing the wrongdoers as per the law.
Joint Association Media Secretary Sumedha Amarasinghe said all information and suggestions were shared with the Finance Ministry, the Central Bank, all line ministries and all line agencies highlighting the importance of loans, leasing, and insurance to the SMEs.
“The most special factor is that a very special proposal lobbied by our association regarding loans and leasing has been considered by the authorities.
It will be announced and implemented shortly. This was something these private institutions have kept on their hold, but now the authorities are taking measures to give it back to the hands of the people. This is a great breakthrough we achieved as an association, SMEs and the general public,” he added.
In June last year, the association called on the Government not to destroy the 52% of SMEs who contribute to the national economy, by trying to protect the cronies of the ministers and large corporations.
“Today, people are in dire straits as a reflection of the worst economic crisis with the high debt burden, skyrocketing cost of living, and all income-generating avenues being blocked. Yet, the large corporations are thriving as they continue to make profits from the crisis by stripping the middle-income earners or the majority of the population,” they added.
One of the major proposals they requested the Government last year was requesting the relevant authorities to amend the unfavourable Recovery of Loans by banks (Special Provisions) Act No. 4 of 1990, Debt Recovery (Special Provisions) Act No. 2 of 1990 and Finance Leasing Act No. 56 of 2000.
