Fishermen set to get Kisan Credit Cards

New Delhi: The central government has begun the process of extending the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme to all eligible fishermen. The KCC Scheme provides working capital to fishermen. Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying Rajiv Ranjan Singh has directed his officials to take up the matter with the Ministry of Finance.

The objective is to issue advisories to all banks so that all eligible fishermen could benefit from the scheme, official sources told Bizz Buzz.

The Minister has also directed his officials to organize a meeting with the MPs of leading fish-producing States and Union Territories (UTs) for better understanding of the ground reality.

The KCC Scheme is intended to provide adequate and timely credit support from the banking system under a single window with flexible and simplified procedures to the farmers for short-term crop loans. The government announced its decision to extend this facility to the farmers engaged in animal husbandry and fisheries in Budget 2018-19. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a notification to that effect on February 2, 2019.

Bank authorities were instructed to issue KCC within 14 days of receipt of the completed application from the fish farmers. For the existing KCC holders, the benefits of interest subvention and prompt repayment incentive will be admissible up to the credit limit of Rs3 lakh, including fisheries activities.

In the case of new card holders, the credit limit is Rs2 lakh to meet their working capital requirements for fisheries activities.

In the KCC Scheme, the lending rate to farmers is seven per cent, including two per cent interest subvention per annum by the central government. Another three per cent is provided in case of prompt repayment as an additional incentive as per the existing guidelines.

This means that the farmers repaying promptly would get a loan at the rate of four per cent effectively for loan amounts up to Rs2 lakh.