| Biswo |
Posted
on 19-Dec-03 04:40 AM
Shiva and Ram,(changed)names of two brothers, were attending a meeting of Nepali Congress regional committee when a fellow Congressi Mr Ranabhat almost roughened them up, and asked Shiva to immediately return the money, About Rs 2,00,000.00 with the interest rate of 36% per annum, that he once borrowed from Mr Ranabhat. "Until then you both are prisoner right here." He declared, and took them to the next door and locked that door.
Since all of them were respectable citizens of Tandi, a furore immediately ensued. Mr Ranabhat presented his case suavely, and told how Shiva always eschewed him."I waited for more than three years. As a fellow Congressi, as a local bhai, I patiently waited, but Shiva never wanted to pay me. When he saw me, he would avoid me." Then he asked the locals, who by then had included the noncongressi members too, to help him get his money back.A nonpartisan committee was formed to solve the issue.
Shiva and Ram were not poor. This incident was very humiliating to both of them. The local Nepali Congress party chief had freed them but not before making them commit that they would obey the decision of the committee.Shiva claimed that his financial status was never that solid to have that much cash in hand. He said he wanted to sell his land but couldn't get any buyer.
The committee members met, and opening their meeting, a local lecturer argued that the case was open and shut. That Shiva should repay everything as soon as possible.So, his land should be sold in a salable price."There are always buyers for lands in Tandi if the price is reasonable.", he opined.
For a few minutes, it sounded like his argument was going to be unanimous. Then, Basu, a local businessman from Tandi, countered. He said that he opposed the whole idea of the committee,, even the formation of the commitee itself. He argued in the following way.
"36% interest is a shockingly high interest, which as a member of NC, a socialist party, I always oppose. But if someone is lending money in that interest, then he is also assuming some risk. That by lending money to an individual than keeping it in the banks for low interest, there is some risk and the lender is willing to assume the risk. So, Mr Ranabhat was assuming some risk there. Now that he is asking us to raise his money, and we are willing to do that, his risk part is gone. If a committee like ours is assured for all lenders, then the banks will not prosper, and all the nonsocialist lenders will be encouraged to lend money in big interest. So, either we don't help Ranabhat to raise this money, or we ask Shiva to pay ,let's say, 10% interest, and we guarantee that this money is paid back to Ranabhat.We can't ask Shiva to pay 36% interest."
This argument was so cogent that the members couldn't directly oppose Basu and after some discussion,they decided that Shiva should not be charged more than 10% interest rate. Of course, the next day,when the decision became known to the merchants of Tandi, they were shocked. There were too many people who made money like Ranabhat. Now they started arguing that there would not be money available to needy when they needed it in occasions like Bihe, Bratabandha, etc. etc. Basu was regarded as a pariah among the merchants.
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There were always money available to lenders in Chitwan. During 1996's, when land business was in peak, the interest rate was 90% per annum, popularly called sukibyaaj [25 paisa per day for a hundred rupees]. Often land agents, popularly called jaggaa dalaal, would see a land, and to seal the deal immediately, he would agree to pay a deposit(bainaa) immediately. He would then borrow money from a local saahu, whose omniscience would already inform him that the dealer would agree to any interest rate.I saw the households of a lot of such agents ruined in the aftermath of the recession in landmarket. They would be buying the lands in the hope that the price would go up definitely. They would be, thus, betting against future. So, when the land stopped to be sold, they were left with useless lands priced very irrationally, and a huge debt with even unprecedented interest rate. Also hit hard were medium class people who thought they suddenly had this cashcow, a good interest rate producing machine. They became complacent, and gullible. They used to lend money without even thinking about the creditibility of the recipient.
I heard of a person named Ram near my village who alone owed more than 1 crore rupees, mostly to his own villagers. He ran away to KTM, his lands were being auctioned off by bank, his kids and wife spending their time in misery, while there was not a single villager whom Ram didn't owe some money and they were not very sympathetic to the remants of Ram.
Of course, the most gouging interest is what we Nepali all pay to a former ruler of a small hilly state called Gurkha. As a forced remuneration of the effort of the Shah who worked for us in our unification drive, we are still paying crores of rupees to his estate's heirs. This year alone, we paid more than 610 million Rupees and quite a few hundred Nepali corpses.
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