Farmers to avail fresh loans up to Tk 2.50 lakh without CIB report [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Farmers to avail fresh loans up to Tk 2.50 lakh without CIB report

Local August 01, 2016

Farmers will not now require submitting credit information bureau report and inquiry to get fresh farm loans up to Tk 2.50 lakh, Bangladesh Bank said on Sunday.
The announcement came as the central bank on the day unveiled Agriculture and Rural Credit Policy and Programme for the fiscal year 2016-17.
The farmers were earlier allowed to take agriculture loan amounting to Tk 1.50 lakh without submitting any CIB report.
BB governor Fazle Kabir unveiled the policy at the central bank headquarters in the capital Dhaka in the presence of managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks.
According to the central bank’s farm loan policy, from now on, the BB will allow agents of the scheduled banks to disburse agriculture loans to curb farm loan distribution by non-governmental organisations and microfinance institutions which charge farmers at excessively higher interest rates for the loans.
Many farmers who get the farm loans through the organisations count more than double the interest rate set by the central bank.
The agents of the banks will have to disburse farm loans with an interest rate of 10 per cent to the farmers.
The agents of the banks will be allowed to receive 0.50 per cent service charge from the farmers against their total disbursed farm loans, the BB policy said.
It said that the banks would have to disburse at least 30 per cent of farm loan in their own capacity against their fiscal target.
A BB official told New Age on Sunday that some banks had distributed their whole annual target of farm loans in the last few years through the linkage of NGOs.
The BB’s farm loan policy said that from now on, the marginal farmers would be allowed to take agriculture credit from the banks to purchase equipments of cultivation. A portion of people, who usually use the cultivation tools, were earlier allowed to take such type of loan to purchase the equipments.
The farmers will be allowed to take farm loan inwhole year to cultivate guava, the credit policy said.
In its policy, the BB has set a farm loan disbursement target of Tk 17,550 crore for the FY17 which is 7.01 per cent higher than that of the FY16.
Farm loan disbursement by banks posted a 10.43-per cent growth in the FY16 compared with that in the same period of the FY15.
Banks disbursed Tk 17,056.43 crore in farm loans in the FY16 against Tk 15,978.46 crore distributed in the FY15, the BB data showed.
After the unveiling session of the farm loan policy, BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury told reporters that the central bank had not made it mandatory to disburse 30 per cent farm loan for foreign commercial banks for this fiscal year.
He said that the central bank had made the decision considering their inadequate branches in the rural areas.
But, the FCBs will have to disburse 30-per cent farm loan in their own capacity from the next fiscal year by expanding their agent banking, he said.
Association of Bankers, Bangladesh president Anis A Khan said that the farmers would get huge facilities from the agent banking.
The banks will be able to disburse farm and SME loan in the remote areas by expanding their network of agent banking, Anis, also managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, said.