NABARD extends ₹14,690-crore loans

Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has extended a total credit support of ₹14,690 crore to the state government, banks and state public sector units and corporations through its financial interventions for the development of agriculture and rural economy during 2017-18, a growth of nearly 15% compared to last year, officials said.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, NABARD chief general manager AK Singh said during 2017-18, NABARD provided assistance of ₹12,240 crore as refinance to banks for supplementing the financial resources of the banks in Rajasthan.

Replying to a query, he said that there has been no impact of farm loan waiver on NABARD as it was a refinancing agency, but NABARD will ensure that the fresh credit line should not choke due to debt waiver and that cooperative banks and rural banks had adequate resources. The Rajasthan government had waived off loans of up to ₹50,000 taken by farmers from the cooperative banks.

Singh said the recovery position of cooperative and rural banks will become clearer by June 30, as agriculture sector credit cycle is from July to June.

“NABARD disbursed concessional loan of ₹1,851.29 crore to the Rajasthan government for rural infrastructure development fund (RIFD) and sanctioned financial assistance of ₹196.32 crore towards completion of Narmada Canal Project under longterm irrigation fund (LTIF) and released ₹101.45 crore under this scheme during 2017-18,” he said.

JAIPUR:National