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Business News/ Companies / News/  Andhra Pradesh to challenge SC interim order on SKS
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Andhra Pradesh to challenge SC interim order on SKS

State govt says did not receive notice from SC before order was issued; SKS shares fall 19.63% in intra-day trade

According to SKS officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Supreme Court order allows the firm to resume operations in Andhra Pradesh without requiring it to seek prior approval from the local government before giving new loans. Photo: Mint (Mint)Premium
According to SKS officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Supreme Court order allows the firm to resume operations in Andhra Pradesh without requiring it to seek prior approval from the local government before giving new loans. Photo: Mint
(Mint)

Mumbai: Andhra Pradesh, once the largest market for microlenders and home to India’s lone listed such institution SKS Microfinance Ltd, said on Thursday it would challenge the Supreme Court’s recent interim order allowing the company to resume operations in the southern state, driving the stock down by almost 20% in intra-day trade.

Microfinance institutions or MFIs give tiny loans to low-income borrowers and source money from banks.

On Monday, SKS got an interim order from the apex court allowing it to resume operations in Andhra Pradesh, where its business had suffered when the southern state enacted a controversial law in 2010 barring MFIs from doing doorstep business and making it mandatory for them to secure government approval to issue new loans to borrowers.

The Andhra Pradesh government hadn’t been served a notice regarding the SKS case, said Reddy Subrahmanyam, principal secretary, rural, Andhra Pradesh.

“We did not receive any notice from the Supreme Court before they issued this order. Hence, we did not have a lawyer to argue our side," Subrahmanyam said. “We will move the Supreme Court at the earliest on this."

Shares of SKS crashed 19.63% in intra-day trade on BSE to a six-month low of 105.50 but recovered to end the day at 119.6 apiece, down 10.58%, even as the bourse’s bellwether equity index Sensex lost 0.48%. From its peak of 1,490.7 on 28 September, 2010, SKS has lost 92% of its value.

According to the apex court’s order, SKS can resume operations in India’s fifth largest state by population but needs to adhere to two key sections of the Andhra Pradesh Act relating to the interest rate and recovery practice clauses. Under these two clauses, MFIs cannot charge interest amounts that exceed the principal and cannot engage in coercive loan recovery practices.

Noted lawyer Harish Salve appeared for SKS in the Supreme Court.

“We are now free to operate in the state in compliance with these two clauses and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations," said S. Dilli Raj, chief financial officer at SKS. “No other section of the Act will apply to SKS’s operations as per the Supreme Court order."

He added that the firm will operate in full compliance with the apex court’s order.

This means that SKS won’t need to get government approval for fresh loans as stipulated by the Andhra Pradesh law. This will be the biggest relief for the beleaguered microlender, as the requirement for separate government approval for every new loan had severely hit the business of MFIs in the last two years.

On Thursday, in a communique to stock exchanges, SKS said “the company intends to carry on business in the State of Andhra Pradesh," in accordance with the order.

SKS moved the Supreme Court after the Andhra Pradesh high court dismissed its petition seeking to quash the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Act, 2011, in February, but asked the state government to review the legislation in the light of proposed national regulations to govern the sector.

“It is an important signal that the Supreme Court has given reprieve to SKS. The order emphasizes the fact that RBI is regulator for NBFC-MFIs (non-banking finance companies that are MFIs)," said Mathew Titus, executive director at the Sa-Dhan industry lobby group. “Also, since MFIs indirectly deal with public deposits, these companies have a greater responsibility. The order gives a signal of stability to the industry," Titus said.

In the aftermath of the crisis, microlenders in the southern state witnessed a sharp erosion in their net worth, mainly on account of mounting bad loans. This was due to a sharp fall in repayment from borrowers, which slid to less than 5%. SKS’s loan book shrank to 1,500 crore from about 5,000 crore before the crisis.

Operations were also hit by commercial banks putting the squeeze on funding due to the uncertainty in the sector.

Other MFIs, such as Spandana Sphoorty Financial Ltd, Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Ltd, Share Microfin Ltd and Asmitha Microfin Ltd also witnessed a drastic fall in their loan book. Most of the leading microlenders in the state except SKS had to restructure their loans.

The crisis, which originated in Andhra Pradesh, saw the business shrink to 20,000 crore from about 30,000 crore and led to large-scale consolidation.

The situation improved with greater regulatory clarity on the governance of such companies, when the RBI formed a separate category of NBFC-MFIs in December 2011, based on the recommendations of an expert panel headed by chartered accountant Y.H. Malegam.

RBI stipulated a 26% limit on the interest rate MFIs can charge borrowers. MFIs were also asked to set aside money or provide for bad assets. In August 2012, the central bank relaxed the provisioning norms and allowed Andhra Pradesh-based MFIs to spread the provisioning burden over five years.

The central bank also removed the interest rate cap, but stipulated a margin of 10%. For smaller MFIs, the margin was set at 12%.

The Union government is currently in the process of putting in place a national law under the Microfinance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2012. The Bill, currently being considered by the standing committee on finance, is expected to take MFIs outside the purview of state-level legislation, including the controversial Andhra Pradesh law.

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Published: 21 Mar 2013, 02:05 PM IST
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