On the sidelines of the discussion held for the ongoing preparations of National Conference of Rural Cooperative Banks on 12th August 2022 at Vigyan Bhawan, Uttarakhand State Cooperative Bank Chairman Dan Singh Rawat requested Union Cooperative Secretary Gyanesh Kumar for the continuation of the 2 percent per annum Interest Subvention Scheme for short term crop loans in the state for the 2022-23 FY and onwards.
In this regard, Rawat handed over a letter to the Secretary at his office. On this occasion, Nafscob Chairman Ravindra Rao and Managing Director Bhima Subramanyam were also present.
The letter stated, “Due to discontinuation of 2 percent interest subvention, the rural cooperative banks of Uttarakhand are facing a lot of financial crises and their ability to provide working capital for crop loans, animal husbandry, fisheries, and honey bee farming activities will also be adversely affected”.
“All the 10 DCCBs and 670 Multipurpose PACs in the state of Uttarakhand provide working capital to the farmers through short term loans for crop loans and agriculture allied activities. About 88.7 percent of the total loans given by Rural cooperative banks have been given for agriculture purposes and about 74.4 percent for short term crop loans”, the letter reads.
It further reads that, “Refinance assistance from Nabard for crop loans should be enhanced for hilly regions from 60 percent to 100 percent of the loan disbursed to the farmers. In the last FY 2021-22, 4.5 percent per annum interest rate was charged on crop loan refinance provided by Nabard, it should be reduced by 2 percent per annum and should be given at an effective rate of 2.5 percent per annum for the 2022-23 FY, Rawat demanded.
He further added that measures were required to protect the interest of farmers and added that the discontinuation of the scheme was likely to impact a large number of farmers.
Earlier, Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also wrote a letter for restoring 2 percent interest subvention. Many state Chief Ministers and others have also written letters to Nabard to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar but to no avail.