RAJYA SABHA
RELAXATION IN RULES TO FACILITATE KISAN CREDIT CARDS
Question
865. DR. AMEE YAJNIK
Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:
(a) the number of Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) holders in the country, State/UT wise;
(b) the details of loan sanctioned/interest rate charged and the target set and achievements made by the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in issuing KCCs to the farmers during each of the last two years, State/UT-wise;
(c) whether Government proposes to relax the rules to facilitate KCCs; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
(SHRI ANURAG SINGH THAKUR)
(a) to (d) In order to ensure that all eligible farmers are provided with hassle-free and timely credit for their agricultural operations, the Government has introduced the KCC Scheme to enable the farmers to purchase agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. The KCC Scheme has been simplified further w.e.f. 2012, which has the provision of ATM enabled debit card with, inter alia, facilities of one-time documentation, built-in cost escalation in the limit, any number of drawals within the limit, etc.
The total no of operative KCC in the country as reported by Public Sector Banks (PSBs) & NABARD as on Jan 31, 2020 is 603.68 lakh. State/UT wise details are given at Annexure-1.
A special saturation drive to cover farmers under KCC is going on since February 2020. As per the information furnished by Public Sector Banks & NABARD, 187.03 lakh KCC with credit limit of Rs 1.76 lakh crore have been sanctioned to farmers across the country during this drive upto 29 January, 2021.
The interest rates on loans have been deregulated by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and it is now based on the Base Rate fixed by the banks. However, with a view to ensuring availability of agriculture credit at a reasonable cost, the Government provides interest subvention for the short term crop loans upto Rs. 3 lakhs for a period of one year so that the same is available at the interest rate of 7% per annum and in case of prompt repayment, the same gets reduced to 4%.
Annexure I as referred to in part (a) to (d} of the reply to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 865 for 09.02.2021
State wise KCC Operative Data as on 31 Jan 2020 ……………….. Read more.