Private housing companies have threatened that they will not pay the loan amount they have taken from banks and financial institutions including interests accrued in it from Friday.

The Nepal Housing and Real Estate Association made such an announcement during a program organized in Lalitpur on Thursday.

They termed the ceiling fixed by the central bank, Nepal Rastra Bank, on housing and real estate loans few weeks ago of being "disastrous" to the housing and real estate business and announced phase-wise protest program to exert pressure on the government to withdraw the decision.

A 17-member "struggle committee" has also been formed under the association's president Icchya Raj Tamang which has put forward a 6-point demand which includes scrapping of the ceiling fixed by NRB on real estate and housing loans.

To check the sky-rocketing price of land in the capital and other parts of the country, NRB had directed all banks and financial institutions to cut back on investing in housing and real-estate sector.

For the time being the banks are only allowed to invest 25 percent of their loan portfolio in the sector. As per NRB directive, they have to significantly cut back their investment in the sector in the next few years.?

courtesy: nepalnews.com