Kerala Financial Corporation, a leading State financial corporation, has announced special lending rates of 9.5 per cent to the manufacturing sector and 10 per cent to the service sector.

Envisaged as a special drive to support the industrial sector in the state, this is applicable to loan applications registered up to February 28, 2018, provided the ratings are satisfactory.

The special rates could benefit thousands of manufacturing, industrial and service sector units, said Sanjeev Kaushik, Chairman and Managing Director of the Corporation.

The Corporation provides repayment period up to 10 years with a moratorium of up to two years, as also a 90 per cent loan for modernisation. For energy saving projects, the rate of interest is six per cent.

A liberal scheme has already been put in place to finance short-term requirements of MSME units consequent to switchover to Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, at 9.5 per cent.

The maximum loan available under the GST scheme is ?15 crore, to be repaid in nine months.

A special scheme is available for young entrepreneurs for setting up start ups, with the maximum loan available fixed at 90 per cent of the project cost but subject to a cap of ?10 lakh. This scheme comes with a five-year repayment period, including a gestation period of one year.