Crunch time is looming for people who borrowed money through the small business cash-flow loan scheme, launched during the pandemic.
The loans were made available in May 2020 for small businesses affected by Covid-19.
Businesses were offered up to $20,000 plus $1800 per fulltime employee.
More than 129,000 businesses took out loans worth $2.4 billion. The average loan amount was $17,000.
Borrowers had five years to repay the loan and many would reach that limit from June, Inland Revenue said.
There were no repayments due for the first two years, and after that there was interest of 3% charged.
From that point, default interest would be charged, at a rate of 10.88% for use-of-money interest plus the 3% interest rate.
There is still $953 million owing through the scheme and 10,000 loans are already in default, owing just over $161m.
