Benefiting farmers, RBI notifies ‘Short-term subsidized crop loan via DBT mode’

New Delhi, June 8: In a new move, the Reserve Bank of India has notified that interest subsidy scheme on short-term crop loans of up to 3 lakh rupees will be implemented through the direct benefit transfer mode from the current financial year.

 

In a notification issued by the Reserve bank of India, it said the Centre has earmarked 15,000 crore rupees for 2018-19 towards interest allocation for short-term crop loans. The notification adds that the scheme will be required to be settled as applicable in Plan Scheme namely Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and North East Region among others.

As per the scheme, farmers can avail of short-term crop loans of up to 3 lakh rupees at a subsidized interest rate of 7% that could go down to 4% on prompt repayment. The interest subvention of 2% will be calculated on the crop loan amount from the date of its distribution up to the date of actual repayment by the farmer or up to the due date of the loan fixed by the banks, whichever is earlier, subject to a maximum of one year.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has informed the RBI that as an interim measure, the Interest Subvention Scheme will be implemented in 2018-19 till further instructions are received, on the terms and conditions approved for the Scheme for 2017-18.

The RBI notification also asked the banks to capture category-wise data (General, SC, ST, etc) of beneficiaries for reporting of the same on ISS portal ‘individual farmer wise’ to settle the claims arising from 2018-19 onwards. Till such time the DBT portal becomes functional banks are requested to submit their claims, category-wise, it added. The RBI said it is working on the detailed modalities regarding categorization of loans.