NABARD initiates slew of measures for promoting rural credit

By
Daily Excelsior
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Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Jan 10: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has initiated a slew of measures for improving rural credit and rural infrastructure particularly warehousing as decided at the 198th meeting of the Board of Directors chaired by Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD held here.
The board has approved the launch of three crop-specific pilot projects with production and post-production interventions to be implemented through Primary Agriculture Co-operative Society (PACS) business models for potato in Hooghly district, West Bengal, tomato in Karnal district Haryana, and onion in Nasik district, Maharashtra. The total outlay for the projects is Rs 37.20 crore, comprising loan and grant support from NABARD of Rs 18.43 crore and Rs 2.43 crore respectively and a subsidy support of Rs 16.34 crore from the Central and State Governments.
NABARD has sanctioned 548 warehousing projects in seven States amounting to Rs 1,046 crore under the NABARD Warehousing Scheme (NWS). These projects on completion will create an additional storage scientific space of 11.30 lakh MT for agriculture commodities and also help in better price discovery for farmers.
As decided by its ALCO, NABARD has revised the rate of interest on refinance provided to banks for investment credit with effect from January 7, 2014. The refinance rate has been reduced by 20 basis points, and the revised rate of interest on refinance for a period of five years for Commercial Banks, State Cooperative Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Primary Urban Cooperative Banks will be 9.7 per cent. The revised rate of interest for refinance for a period of three to five years will be 9.9 per cent.
Banks drawing refinance of Rs 500 crore and more in a single drawl will be allowed further reduction of 10 basis points, making the effective rate 9.6 per cent and 9.8 respectively. However, for State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (SCRDBs), 10 basis points reduction is allowed for a single drawl of Rs 200 crore and above.

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