State Bank of India, Kolkata Circle has undertaken a special drive to finance “No Refusal Taxis”. This is the second phase of the programe initiated by the bank. The program was first launched on a pilot-basis in Kolkata, Howrah and North 24 Parganas. It was successful and was a positive move for generating employment and enhancing convenience in commutation. The transport department of the state government has sanctioned permits to 2000 people and the bank had financed around 750 of them. The government now plans to extend the scheme to cover several other areas of the state. The bank is financing up to 93% of the on-road price of the vehicle and is charging no processing fee. It is looking forward to this as an opportunity to supplement the state government in its efforts to increase the supply of more metered taxis and boost up self employment. With add-on features like installation of POS machines in the taxis, the customers can use their debit/credit cards to pay their taxi fare. B. Sriram, MD of the bank, issued the sanctioning letters to seven borrowers on the occasion.
