STA to provide collateral-free loans to auto permit allottees

In a relief to thousands of autorickshaw permit allottees, the State Transport Authority (STA) has decided to provide collateral-free loans for buying autos, a senior official has said.
The loan without the collateral security, in the form of immovable property, will be provided by the Delhi Financial Corporation (DFC).
In case of default, the autorickshaw and its permit will be forfeited by the DFC, the official said.
The STA Board, in its meeting last month, discussed financial assistance to auto permit holders on easy terms and conditions.
It was observed that the collateral security is not available with most of the permit holders as they are "very poor", and so they cannot obtain loan for purchasing autos, he said.

Since the private financiers charge high interest rates, it was suggested that the maximum number of autorickshaws should be financed through the DFC, he said.

Earlier, the guarantee norms of the DFC to finance autorickshaws demanded collateral security of immovable property owned by the borrower with a clear marketable title and valuation not less than 100 per cent of the loan amount.
The Autorickshaw Unit (ARU) of the Transport Department launched a scheme for allotment of 10,000 permits in January this year.
The board also resolved that in the event of default in loan payment, the DFC will surrender the permit of concerned auto to the ARU.

The ARU will allot permit of defaulted autos to another applicant of its permit scheme.
Over 11,000 applications were received by the ARU for auto permits and more than 9,000 have been found eligible for issuing them, he said.