The Hindu Business Line : Farm credit in Kerala crosses 18 per cent

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 8 Agricultural credit by commercial banks in Kerala has crossed the mandatory level of 18 per cent during the first quarter of the current year.

The outstanding agricultural advances at the end of the previous year was at Rs 11,377 crore and a further Rs 770 crore was added in the first quarter of this year, taking the outstanding level to Rs 12,147 crore.

This constituted 18.86 per cent of the total credit, which was an all-time high, it was revealed at the review meeting of the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) held here the other day.

Disbursals

During the quarter ended June 30, 2007, the banks disbursed Rs 5,256 crore to the priority sector, which was 17.51 per cent of the target of Rs 30,018 crore for the whole year.

Of the disbursement target for 2007-08, Rs 11,602 crore has been earmarked for the agricultural sector, Rs 4,749 crore for the small-scale industries sector and Rs 13,667 crore for the other priority sectors.

The meeting was informed that the banks, as per the decision of SLBC, were implementing the scheme of writing off debt up to Rs 1 lakh in respect of the farmers who committed suicide. The banks had written off 735 loans to the tune of Rs 2.30 crore.

Interest waiver

Under the Prime Minister’s Relief Package for distressed farmers, the banks in the State extended relief measures in three identified districts.

Under the first component of waiver of overdue interest, the banks waived an amount of Rs 223.82 crore in respect of about three lakh farmers’ accounts. Out of this amount, Rs 218.94 crore was reimbursed to the banks by the Reserve Bank and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

In the case of rescheduling of the accounts of distressed farmers, the banks achieved a progress of 43 per cent by rescheduling 1.3 lakh accounts with an outstanding amount of Rs 320.75 crore.

Also, the banks extended Rs 32.26 crore of fresh finance in about 8,700 accounts that were rescheduled.

The meeting also noted that as at the end of June 2007, around 1.48 lakh students in the State had availed themselves of education loans from the banks amounting to Rs 2,053 crore.