Farmers to get interest free loans up to Rs 5 lakh, announces Hassan Mushrif

Kolhapur District Central Bank has made a big announcement for the farmers in the district. Farmers will be given interest free crop loans up to Rs 5 lakh. The announcement was made by the bank's chairman and minister of state Hassan Mushrif at the bank's 83rd annual meeting.

The bank's annual review meeting was held on Monday. It has set a target of Rs 9,000 crore for deposits and Rs 175 crore for the current financial year. Mushrif claimed that KDCC was the first bank to lend at zero percent. Millions of farmers, who are members of the bank, had demanded crop loans at zero per cent interest. As a result, the loan limit of Rs 3 lakh has been increased to Rs 5 lakh.

The board of directors took over the reins of the bank from the administrator six years ago. The bank was at a loss then. The bank has made a net profit of Rs 145 crore, covering a loss of Rs 103 crore in the last six years. At present, the bank has deposits of Rs 7,141 crore. These deposits are targeted at Rs 9,000 crore. The bank has paid income tax of Rs 18.22 crore, Mushrif said.

The loan sanctioning policy has been adopted for various sectors such as farmers, milk producers, industries, sugar mills, yarn mills. The bank has introduced various personal loan schemes for business growth. Mushrif also said that Rs 500 crore has been allocated to finance buffalo milk production to increase buffalo milk production.