The Hindu Business Line : Banks unveil relief measures for drought-hit Kerala farmers

To begin with, a six-month moratorium will be granted on revenue recovery measures on agricultural loans taken by drought-affected farmers. To facilitate this, the Government will be requested to make available to all the banks at the district level the notification on drought specifying the affected areas and crops.

At the 83rd meeting of the State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) held here on Tuesday, it was also decided to convert short-term loans/ crop loans during the drought period to medium-term loans repayable within three to five years. If there is acute damage, longer repayment period of up to seven years will be considered.

The interest portion of the loans so converted will be payable only during the harvesting/marketing of the next crop in the case of small and marginal farmers and those who are not able to repay the interest portion now. Eligible persons will be given fresh crop loans to continue the agricultural operations.

During the period of drought, need-based consumption loans will also be extended to the affected farmers as per extant guidelines.

The committee also decided to convene meetings of the bankers at the district level, which will be chaired by the respective district collectors, on or before April 10, to discuss measures specific to each district and also to suggest ways to implement the relief measures speedily.

All the term loans/investment loans of affected persons will be rephrased and the repayment period extended. The instalments of loans taken by the affected farmers shall be payable only after the drought is over and income generation from the farms begins.

The meeting exhorted the affected farmers to contact their bank branches for availing themselves of the relief measures. The meeting assured the Government all the possible assistance for mitigating the effects of the drought.

The committee also decided to give financial assistance to the "Akshaya" project that is being extended all over the State. Entrepreneurs will be given loans of up to Rs 2 lakh on liberal terms without insisting on collateral securities.

A new loan scheme for assisting `Kudumbasree' project in its efforts to provide employment to 50,000 persons in the next one year will be evolved soon in consultation with Kudumbasree authorities. Besides, educational loans of up to Rs 4 lakh will be given by all bank branches in the State without insisting on collateral securities.

Priority sector disbursals: The banks in the State disbursed Rs 9,058 crore to the priority sector during the third quarter ended December 2003. This is 86 per cent of the disbursement target of Rs 10,495 crore for the current year.

Out of the disbursals, Rs 3,095 crore was for agriculture sector alone, Rs 1,108 crore for the SSI sector and Rs 4,855 crore for the other priority sectors.

The total deposits of the banks as on December 2003 stood at Rs 28,818 crore, while the total advances and investments in approved securities/debentures were to the tune of Rs 32,331 crore. The credit-deposit ratio in the State during the quarter improved by 0.88 percentage points over the March 2003 level to 46.35 per cent.

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