The Hindu Business Line : Kerala SLBC reprieve for distressed farmers

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 13 The State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) has decided to reschedule the overdue accounts of distressed farmers in three districts of Kerala.

The special meeting of SLBC, which was convened here on Thursday to review the progress of implementation of the Prime Minister’s Relief Package for distressed farmers in the three identified districts of Palakkad, Wayanad and Kasaragod, resolved that the rescheduling of all the eligible accounts should be done by following a uniform procedure by all the banks in the State.

As per the decision, a registered notice with acknowledgement due will be sent to the farmer, whose overdue interest has been waived by the bank, intimating him of the provision to reschedule the loan.

The bank will reschedule the loan account if the borrower fails to respond to the notice within 15 days.

Nabard study

A study by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), which was presented at the meeting, revealed that interest waiver was extended in time to distressed farmers in the three districts by all the banks. The average level of rescheduling of loans was 48 per cent.

The study also found that the lowest level of rescheduling was in Wayanad district, followed Kasaragod. The reason for the gap in the rescheduling of loans by the banks was that the farmers were not coming forward to avail themselves of the opportunity. Besides, out of the rescheduled loan accounts, only 11 per cent were issued with fresh loans by the banks. The performance of the commercial banks was 16 per cent, followed by the State co-operative bank with 14 per cent.