An alternative re-payment plan aimed at finding redress for disgruntled depositors of Golden Key (GK), after almost 30 months is to be implemented soon after the Supreme Court endorsed the appeal made by members of GK depositors associations and former directors, lawyers of depositors said.
The 3-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Shirani Tilakawardane on Wednesday ordered GK’s former directors to take measures immediately to start the repayment process and to re-open the GK head office only for this purpose. All these activities will be carried out under the supervision of the Central Bank and with the special security provided by an officer of the Criminal Investigation Division. The Court directed that the 3-member accountants committee headed by Lakshman R. Watawala should continue their functions for a further six months to streamline the procedure. The Court has taken this decision considering the practical modalities that are going to be utilized for the repayment of the depositors in the first year which will provide a settlement of 30%of the deposits amounting to the value of Rs.3.7 billion.
These modalities were presented to the court by the former directors. The Court ordered them to submit a business plan for the full repayment.
According to this repayment plan, all deposits at the rate of between 25% to 100% will be repaid within four years at 6% interest considering the amount and the period of deposits. Depositors who made deposits shortly before the collapse of the company will be given priority under the repayment plan, Attorney Generals Department sources said.
President of the Golden Key Depositors Society Anusha Emmert told the Business Times that they held meetings in Colombo, Kandy and several other areas to create awareness on this plan among depositors and around 2,400 depositors have given their consent by signing the documents. She said that this was the first time that the GK directors have stepped in to find some redress for them.
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