The business community says the Kovis loans owed by the NLD government have been ordered to be repaid in September with interest and principal, and business owners say they are having difficulty repaying the loans due to the inability to operate.

Under the NLD government, more than 200 billion kyat in loans were disbursed under the NLD government to cover the economic impact of the Kovis epidemic.

However, after the military coup, many small and medium-sized businesses were shut down due to the collapse of Burma's economic market system.

Currently, the military council has ordered loans to be repaid with interest and principal by September, but SMEs are finding it difficult to repay their loans.

"The problem is that I have not been able to work for about a year. Due to the political situation, it was closed during the Kovich period. There was nothing that you could do about it. I stopped working because I didn't work. We have to make ends meet. It is a bit difficult to continue lending” said a businessman.

He also said that although the loan was given to run the business, it was unable to operate due to the prolonged Kovich epidemic and the loans were used up due to staff salaries and taxes.

Therefore, business owners say they would like to see interest payments first, rather than repaying both interest and principal.

"The first step is usually to get the interest rate first," he said.

Even if you can't pay the principal, you have to pay interest. At this time, SME loans should not be repaid.

It is beneficial to repay the loan only when the traders start working. Now the business has not been done yet, so it was difficult at that time” said an SME entrepreneur.

The military council has said it will take action under existing laws if the loans are not repaid by September.

There are more than 20,000 small and medium enterprises in Mon State, and hundreds of thousands of workers depend on them.