58% cut in NABARD funds to Karnataka, Minister Rajanna informs Council

Bengaluru: Minister for Co-operation K N Rajanna informed Legislative Council on Tuesday that that the agricultural loan provided at subsidised rate of interest from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has come down by 58 per cent.

The minister was replying to a question by Congress MLC Dinesh Gooligowda seeking details of financial assistance received from various Central agencies to the co-operative sector, including NABARD.

“Following the letter from chief minister and pressure from our Members of Parliament we have received additional amount of Rs 896 crore and we are confident of receiving some more funds,” Rajanna told the House. He said the fund allocation was less for all the states and Karnataka is the only state which got more money after communication. 

The data tabled before the Council revealed that NABARD assistance has down in the state over the past five years.

The decline was  Rs 3,570.98 crore in 2023-24 and increased to Rs 5,924 crore in 2024-25. “We had made a demand for Rs 9,219 crore but did not receive that much. The funds got reduced by 58 per cent,” Rajanna told the Council. 

As per the data, Karnataka received Rs. 5,500 cr in 2020-2021; Rs. 5,483.90 cr in 2021-2022; Rs. 5,550 cr in 2022-2023 and Rs. 5,600 cr in 2023-2024. Additionally, the state received Rs. 1,700 cr and Rs 1,415 crore during Covid-19 years of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 respectively.