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| Gross violation of Interest Subvention found in GOI’s KCC scheme | | Orders for Diversion of funds issued without central government’s approval, Rs 0.04 crore wrongly credited to ineligible borrowers | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 15: Diversion of funds to the extent of Rs 244.10 crore has been found in the Kissan Credit Card (KCC) scheme with documents revealing that such a practice was in violation of Interest Subvention scheme guidelines as the scheme was not extendable to agricultural production loans.
Official documents in possession of Early Times reveal that the Kissan Credit Card (KCC) scheme was a pre-existing scheme introduced in 1998 by the Reserve Bank of India to provide adequate and timely support from the Banking system through a single window with the flexible and simplified procedure to the farmers for their cultivation and other needs.. The card is offered by Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks and Public Cooperatives. The KCC allows cash credit to farmers to take care of crop related expenses like seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, electricity and diesel charges etc.
The Government, according to the documents released funds amounting to Rs 244.78 crore between July 2016 and June 2017 to JKSLBC for further disbursement to the Banks operating the KCC scheme in the State. The JKSLBC in turn released Rs 134.30 crore in three tranches during the period from July 2016 to June 2017 to JKBL which in turn credited from January 2017 to April 2018 the amount in 66,015 KCC accounts holders of all 22 districts of the State. The JKSLBC further released Rs 109.80 crore to 19 other banks for 49,302 accounts of KCC. Also, an amount of Rs 0.04 crore was wrongly credited by JKBL on 05 July 2016 to 33 borrowers who were ineligible. The balance amount of Rs 0.64 crore was refunded between October 2017 and April 2018 to the Government by the JKSLBC.
Documents reveal that the that sanction of funds by the Government was in violation of Interest Subvention scheme guidelines and resulted in diversion of funds to the extent of Rs 244.10 crore as the scheme was not extendable to agricultural production loans. Further, it was observed that while extending Interest Subvention Scheme under the PMDP to KCC and while making the payment, specific linkage to losses occurred due to flood had not been done by the JKSLBC/ Banks. Also, the deviations to the scheme guidelines and Government sanction orders thereof were not issued with the approval of the GoI.
Documents further confirmed that scheme funds released by the Government of India (GoI) were diverted towards agriculture production loans of farmers under KCC scheme and resulted in violation of the guidelines of the Interest Subvention scheme. |
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