Kerala Tourism employees entitled to ₹10K loan after state govt sets up Revolving Fund

The Kerala Tourism Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) Society on Tuesday, October 26. The signed MoU states the disbursal of interest-free loans up to Rs. 10,000 to help the employees of the COVID pandemic-hit tourism sector of Kerala. The signed MoU also mentions that the loans provided by the Revolving Fund, which is set up by the state government, will not involve collateral security.

What did the MoU specify?

During a function held at the Tourism Directorate, Kerala Tourism Director V R Krishna Teja and KTM president Baby Mathew signed the MoU in order to support employees serving the tourism sector. KTM Secretary Jose Pradeep also marked his presence during the occasion.

KTM president Baby Mathew while speaking at the event said, "In this pandemic-ravaged industry, there are a large number of people struggling hard to resume their activities. We are glad that through this generous scheme, loans upto Rs 10,000 will be provided to 10,000 people without any collateral damage."

KTM Secretary Jose Pradeep attested that the MoU would be of major relief to the employees working in the tourism sector.

"We had asked for a maximum of Rs. 1 lakh as loan but for the time being Rs. 10,000 has been sanctioned. However, we hope that in future, more funds will be provided by the Government," Pradeep said. 

Pradeep went on to thank the Tourism Department for coming out with such an initiative to help workers in the concerned sector, who are still grappling due to the adverse effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Revolving Fund of Rs 10 crore set up by Kerala govt

Earlier this month, the state government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had constituted a Revolving Fund. This fund came with an initial corpus of Rs 10 crore as part of the efforts to revive the tourism sector. The fund would also provide jobs to thousands across the state who had been affected due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

A Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) is a source of money from which loans are made for multiple small business development projects. The fund inherits its name from the revolving aspect of loan repayment in which the central fund is replenished as individual projects pay back their loans, creating the opportunity to issue other loans to new projects.

Image: Twitter/@KeralaTourism, Facebook/V R Krishna Teja Mylavarapu