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Abstract
A Kisan Credit Card is a credit card to provide affordable credit for fanners in India. It was started by the Government of India, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1998-99 to help farmers access timely and adequate credit. The Kisan Credit Card allows farmers to have cash credit facilities without going through time-consuming bank credit screening processes repeatedly. Repayment can be rescheduled if there is a bad crop season, and extensions are offered for up to four years. The card is valid for three years and subject to annual renewals. Withdrawals are made using slips, cards, and a passbook. During the last 13 years of implementation, many impediments were encountered by policy makers, implementing banks and the fanners in the implementation of the scheme. Recommendations of various Committees appointed by GOI and studies conducted by NABARD also corroborate this fact. It was, therefore, felt necessary to revisit the existing KCC Scheme to make it truly simple and hassle free for both the farmers and bankers. Accordingly, the GOI, Ministry of Finance constituted a Working Group to review the KCC Scheme.
Keywords : repayment, policy makers, institutional credit
Introduction
The Kisan Credit Card has emerged as an innovative credit delivery mechanism to meet the production credit requirements of the farmers in a timely and hassle-free manner. The scheme is under implementation in the entire country by the vast institutional credit framework involving Commercial Banks, RRBs and Cooperatives and has received wide acceptability amongst bankers and farmers. However, During the last 13 years of implementation, many impediments were encountered by policy makers, implementing banks and the farmers in the implementation of the scheme. Recommendations of various Committees appointed by GOI and studies conducted by NABARD also corroborate this fact. It was, therefore, felt necessary to revisit the existing KCC Scheme to make it truly simple and hassle free for both the farmers and bankers. Accordingly, the GOI, Ministry of Finance constituted a Working Group to review the KCC Scheme. The KCC scheme was introduced by the government of India in the 1998-99 budget to displace a tangled web of other short term agricultural credit schemes that had become increasingly burdensome and inadequate.
Farmers heavily...