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he State Bank of India, in association with Air-India and the Singapore Tourism Board, has launched a personal loan scheme for travel to Singapore.
Available to residents of Andhra Pradesh, the package will be valid from January 1 to March 31, on all the six weekly Air-India flights on the Hyderabad-Singapore-Hyderabad route.
The package includes three schemes that are open to:
Group bookings for school and college trips are also available.
~ Scheme A: Has an indicative loan amount of Rs 17,500 for an adult and Rs 12,550 for a child. Includes airfare on Air-India flights.
~ Scheme B: Has an indicative loan amount of Rs 20,600 for an adult and Rs 15,650 for a child. Includes airfare, four days and three nights stay at the Metropolitan YMCA. Also includes daily breakfast, half-day city tour and one lunch, a boat ride and a visit to the Newater plant (a plant that recycles sewage water to drinking water).
~ Scheme C: Has an indicative loan amount of Rs 22,000 for an adult and Rs 17,050 for a child. Includes airfare, four days and three nights stay at the Golden Landmark, a four-star hotel. Also includes daily breakfast, half-day city tour and one lunch, a boat ride and a visit to the Newater plant.
You can also approach the SBI for a loan for shopping on a tour of Singapore.
Repayment
The loans are repayable in equated monthly instalments spread over 12, 24, 36 and 48 months, at 12.75 percent rate of interest calculated on a daily reducing balance.
The EMIs range from Rs 335 to Rs 418 for a child and Rs 467 to Rs 550 for an adult for 48 months.
A similar scheme was launched by Air-India and Singapore Tourism Board in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry earlier, in association with Indian Bank. It was, however, only for salaried employees.
"It has just been about three weeks since this scheme was launched there and it has been quite successful," said S M Mazharullah, manager-Andhra Pradesh, Air-India.
"Through such schemes, we are trying to tap new markets, especially the first-time travellers who have the interest but not the means to travel to Singapore.
"Although the schemes are valid till March this year, based on the success of this package, we might extend it to the next financial year. We may extend it to other countries like Maldives also."
"From January to November 2004, around 4,26,500 Indians travelled to Singapore," Bridget Goh, Singapore Tourism Board's area director for south India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, said. From Hyderabad itself, there were 8,931 visitors during the same period, registering a growth of 47.5 per cent over 2003, she added.
For more information, visit www.sbi.co.in
