Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. In the last 2 years, about 14 percent of Indians have taken loans through instant loan apps and out of these, about 58 percent were charged more than 25 percent annual interest from the people. This has come to the fore in a survey conducted by LocalCircles. 54 per cent of the respondents said that they were extorted during payment or their loan and interest data was tampered with. More than 27,500 people living in 409 districts participated in this survey. Of the total people surveyed, 47 per cent were residing in Tier 1 cities and 35 per cent in Tier 2 cities. Apart from this, 18 percent people were from Tier 3 and 4 and rural areas.

Interest charged up to 200%

26 percent of the people surveyed said that 10-25 percent interest was charged from them. 16 percent told the interest rate up to 25-50 percent. 26 per cent of the people said that they were charged interest at the rate of 100-200 per cent. At the same time, 16 percent of the people said the interest rate was more than 200 percent. In this way, a total of 58 percent admitted that they were charged more than 25 percent interest annually. 14 percent of the people surveyed said that they or someone in their family or someone working for them has taken a loan through the instant loan app.

Most such apps made during epidemic

Most of the instant apps were made during the Kovid-19 epidemic. At that time people needed money for sudden job loss or any other emergency situation and Instant App provided them. However, in lieu of this, interest of 400-500 per cent was charged from borrowers in many cases. Customers say that 30-60 percent interest is charged for loans of Rs 3,000-5,000.

Most Loan Apps Illegal

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in view of the increasing arbitrariness of loan apps that the central bank will soon bring rules to regulate digital lending platforms. He had said that most of the such apps are running illegally and unauthorized. RBI had also appealed to the people that if someone extorts, then they should complain to the police.