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NEWS ALERTS | Limited outreach of subsidised crop loan scheme among small & marginal farmers
Limited outreach of subsidised crop loan scheme among small & marginal farmers

Limited outreach of subsidised crop loan scheme among small & marginal farmers

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published Published on Apr 4, 2016   modified Modified on May 6, 2016

The budgetary support to interest subvention scheme has increased by almost 14 times between 2006-07 and 2016-17. However, the much-touted subsidised short-term credit scheme provides little help to the small and marginal farmers, apart from tenant farmers.

According to the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion, which submitted its report in December 2015, the interest subvention scheme suffers from 3 types of defects: i. Subsidised credit may not be reaching the actual cultivators; ii. There are chances of subsidised credit being misused; and, iii. Since the interest subsidy scheme is for short-term crop loans, it discriminates against long-term loans and thereby, does not incentivise long-term capital formation in agriculture, which is required to boost farm productivity (please click here to access).

The Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion, which was chaired by Deepak Mohanty, in its report has, thus, recommended phasing out the interest subvention scheme and ploughing the subsidy amount into a universal crop insurance scheme for small and marginal farmers.

Following the budgetary allocation of Rs. 15,000 crore in 2016-17 under the interest subvention scheme for short-term credit, Ashok Gulati in his article No Gamechangers For Farmers, written for The Indian Express (dated: 1 March, 2016) says that the credit subsidy scheme is subject to misuse by large farmers. Such farmers often borrow huge amounts of loan at subsidised rates and either invest the same in fixed deposits or lend it to those who are unable to access institutional credit at higher rates (please click here to access).

Based on the All-India Debt and Investment Survey (2013), it has been shown by the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion that there exists an inverse relationship between the size class of land holdings and the proportion of farmers borrowing credit from money lenders, except for the land holding size classes 1.01-2.00 hectare and 2.01-4.00 hectare.
 
It means that a small proportion of farmers who cultivate on small-sized land holdings have access to institutional credit, including subsidised crop loan. Therefore, such farmers rely heavily on credit from private moneylenders, who charge exhorbitant rates.

The data from All-India Debt and Investment Survey (2013) says that when the land holding size is less than 0.01 hectares, almost 13 percent, have access to credit from a formal banking institution, whereas 64 percent borrow from private moneylenders.   

About the Interest Subvention Scheme

The interest subvention scheme grants certain amount to banks every year so that they collect less interest from those farmers who repay back their debt in time.

The website of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) says that the interest subvention scheme came into force with effect from kharif 2006-07.

Following the policy of affordable short-term credit for farmers, which was announced during the budget speech of the Finance Minister in 2006-07, the Government of India provided interest subvention of 2 percent to Public Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks with respect to short-term production credit of upto Rs. 3 lakh provided to farmers out of their own resources, subject to the condition that they make available short-term credit @ 7 percent per annum at the ground-level.

The rates for the interest subvention scheme has varied over the years, says NABARD.

Incentive to farmers on prompt repayments

Since 2009-10, the Government of India revised the scheme and additional interest subvention was extended to farmers who repay their loans on or before the due date or the date fixed by the banks, subject to a maximum period of one year.

As could be seen from Chart 1 below, the interest subvention claims paid by the government have been increasing rapidly over the years.

Chart 1: Interest rate subvention
Interest rate subvention

Source: Report of the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion

 
Interest subvention to small and marginal farmers against Negotiable Warehouse Receipts

In order to discourage distress sale of farm produce by cultivators and to encourage them to store their produce in warehouses against warehouse receipts, the Government of India introduced a scheme in 2011-12 for extending concessional loans to the farmers against negotiable warehouse receipts.

Post-harvest loans against Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (NWR) provided by banks to small and marginal farmers having Kisan Credit Cards, were made eligible for interest subvention, period of upto six months on the same rate as available to crop loan. However, small and marginal farmers, who did not avail crop loans through banking system, were not eligible for interest subvention. No additional subvention towards prompt repayment, as is available for crop loans, was envisaged under the scheme.

Interest subvention to NABARD

As per the scheme, interest subvention would be made available to the NABARD for providing concessional refinance to Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Cooperative Banks. NABARD is subvented to the extent of difference between weighted average cost of funds mobilised and refinance rate. Additionally, administrative cost of 20 basis points is also provided by the Government of India.


References:

Report of the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion (chaired by Deepak Mohanty), Reserve Bank of India, 28 March, 2016, please click here to access
 
Note for Demands for Grants 2016-17, Payments to Financial Institutions, http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2016-17/eb/sbe1.pdf

Note for Demands for Grants 2007-08, Payments to Financial Institutions, Ministry of Finance, please click here to access  

Bank Credit to Agriculture in India in the 2000s: Dissecting the Revival -R Ramakumar and Pallavi Chavan, Review of Agrarian Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, February-June, 2014, please click here to access

Counterproductive Farm Policies -PSM Rao, Outlook, 29 March, 2016, please click here to access
 
Bulk of crop loan interest subvention for settling earlier dues, Business Standard, 3 March, 2016, please click here to access

No Gamechangers For Farmers -Ashok Gulati, The Indian Express, 1 March, 2016, please click here to access
 
Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi


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