Money and Credit

Cheap and affordable credit is crucial for the country's development. The various types of loans or credits can be grouped as formal sector loans and informal sector loans. Among the former are loans from banks and cooperatives. The informal lenders include moneylenders, traders, employers, relatives and friends.
Banks and cooperatives give loans on a lesser interest rate than the informal sector. But bank loans require proper documents and collateral. Absence of collateral is one of the major reasons why bank loans are not available to small farmers and people who wish to start small industries.
Compared to the formal lenders, most of the informal lenders charge a much higher interest on loans. Thus, the cost to the borrower of informal loans is much higher. Higher cost of borrowing means a larger part of the earnings of the borrowers is used to repay the loan.
For these reasons, banks and cooperative societies need to lend more to the poorer section of people . This would lead to higher incomes and many people could then borrow cheaply for a variety of needs. They could grow crops, do business, set up small-scale industries etc. They could set up new industries or trade in goods.
At present, it is the richer households who receive credit from formal sources whereas the poor have to depend on the informal sources. It is essential that the total formal sector credit increases so that the dependence on the more expensive informal credit becomes less. Also, the poor should get a much greater share of formal loans from banks, cooperative societies etc. Both these steps are important for development.