Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 20
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Finance and Economic Affairs Minister of Iran Masoud Karbasian has said that seven banks in the country have been appointed to allocate facilities to help those affected by the recent earthquake in the western province of Kermanshah.
In the meantime, Iran’s Bank Maskan, also known as the Housing Bank, has decided to allow its debtors in the earthquake-hit regions of Kermanshah Province to postpone settling their debts by two years.
The head of the Housing Bank, Mohammad Hashem Botshekan, has said that those who had received facilities from his bank and were affected by the recent tremors will be eligible to pay off their debts after two years, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) reported.
The administration earlier decided to allocate $164 million in loans and $70 million as grants to those families affected by the disaster in the western province.
Under the bill, each household in the rural areas will receive $6,250 in loan and $1,250 as a grant. The residents of the urban areas will also get loans up to $8,750 and grants worth $1,500.
The state-owned Iran Insurance Company has also said that it has, so far, paid $1.3 million to 1,320 claims following the 7.3 magnitude earthquake.
In the meantime, Iran Insurance Syndicate has announced that it will issue replica contracts for those people who have lost their insurance documents in the last week’s devastating earthquake in western Iran.
Media reports suggest that the incident damaged more than 30,000 houses in the area and destroyed at least two villages. The jolts claimed about 500 lives and injured thousands.
A provincial official earlier estimated that the total losses from the earthquake hit $641 million.