Nabard wants to give out more loans

Seeking the intervention of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in furthering its efforts to provide more credit flow to farmers in the State, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has said that it wants to increase its agriculture loans from Rs 8,800 crore to Rs 10,000 crore for the current fiscal.

Following his meeting with Siddaramaiah on Monday, Nabard chief general manager G R Chintal said that Nabard was seeking the State government’s assistance in a few programmes they have initiated for the benefit of the farmers, tribals and rural development.

“As per the Centre’s cap on securing loans from Nabard for rural development, Karnataka is seeking Rs 750 crore per year. We have requested the State to approach the Centre for its intervention in trying to relax the guidelines and increase our contribution. The reason being, the rate of interest offered by Nabard is cheaper,” said Chintal.

According to sources, other south Indian states such as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have been getting the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIFD) upto Rs 2,000 crore at 6.75 per cent. Karnataka, however, is getting loans from the open market at eight to 8.5 per cent interest rate.