Centre asks all the states to saturate farmers with Kisan Credit Cards

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Government of India (GOI) has decided to launch a campaign with immediate effect and accorded the highest priority to saturate farmers for financial inclusion under Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). This campaign will be launched through the Financial Institutions including Commercial Banks, Cooperative Banks, and Regional Rural Banks in collaboration with the State Governments. The Department of Financial Services has already issued directives to the Financial Institutions under their purview in this regard.

The Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, in a communication to the Chief Secretaries of all the states, has asked them to launch the campaign with immediate effect.

As per the information available with Government of India, there are around 6.95 crore active KCCs.  The above coverage had been made possible due to a successful and collaborative efforts made by the State Governments, District administrative machinery and the Financial Institutions. Issuing of KCCs in large numbers have helped in increasing the agriculture credit which has contributed significantly in not only fulfilling the objective of food security for our country but also increasing the farmers income.

However, there are still a large number of farmers who do not have access to institutional credit either because they have not been issued a KCC or the KCC issued earlier was inactive due to various reasons other than NPA. The reasons for this gap in coverage include levy of various recurring and non-recurring charges related to processing/ documentation/ledger folio/inspection by the banks, cumbersome procedure adopted by certain banks for sanctioning the credit limits and perceived difficulty in completing the required documentation

The Government has taken a major farmer friendly step of extending the benefits of KCC with interest subvention to the farmers engaged in activities related to Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. Farmers already possessing a KCC and involved in activities related to animal husbandry & fisheries can avail an additional sub- limit within an overall limit of Rs three lakh and the interest subvention/prompt repayment incentive will also be applicable within this credit limit. Farmers involved in activities related to animal husbandry & fisheries but not possessing any KCC, will be eligible for issue of a fresh KCC with credit limit up to Rs two lakhs with applicability of interest subvention/prompt repayment incentive, according to a PIB release.

Since the credit availed to KCC will be eligible for interest subvention support of the GOI, the details of Aadhar Card Number of the applicants shall also be collected. The State Governments will undertake a detailed review and monitoring of the progress of the campaign. Review will also be undertaken by District Level Bankers Committee as well as State Level Bankers Committee.  A separate dashboard for monitoring will become operational shortly to monitor the progress of applications collected and KCC issued against those applications. DLBC will be required to update the progress weekly on the dashboard.

The KCC will be issued in a time bound manner from the branch where the farmer is already having an account. In case the eligible farmer is not having any bank account, the same shall be immediately opened in any of the nearby branch of his/her choice within the block. Eligible farmers will be issued KCCs by the banks concerned within two weeks of the submission of completed application forms.