Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Loan at 4% interest for paddy mooted

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government is working on a proposal to extend cooperative credit for paddy cultivation at 4 per cent interest in keeping with the M.S. Swaminathan Committee recommendations, Cooperation Minister G. Sudhakaran said here on Monday.

Mr. Sudhakaran told a news conference that the committee on interests in the cooperative sector would meet within a fortnight to take a decision in the matter.

Although the Centre had in principle agreed with the proposal for granting loans for agricultural purposes, it pegged it at 7 per cent. For Kerala too, it would be difficult to extend loans at 4 per cent interest for all crops.

However, the Government was keen that credit should be available at such a rate to make paddy cultivation remunerative, the Minister said.

He said the cooperative sector was ready to disburse loans up to Rs.5,000 crore in the State this year.

Mr. Sudhakaran, who met mediapersons in the presence of Nabard Chief General Manager (Kerala) Bhawar Puri and Kerala State Cooperative Bank president Kadakampally Surendran, said Nabard had decided to grant a 2 per cent interest subvention on all the cooperative credit for the farm sector.

This, he pointed out, would enable the State and District Cooperative Banks and the primary cooperative credit societies to extend loans at such a low interest rate as 5.5 per cent as against the present 7 per cent or more.

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