What is the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme?
Contributing
around 16% of the total Indian GDP, the Agriculture sector is at the
third rank behind the services sector and industrial sector. To help
the financial needs of the farmers in our country and to make the
lending process easy for them, the Kisan Credit Card (KCC )scheme was
launched in August 1998 by the various Indian Banks. The scheme was
modeled by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
(NABARD) and it was originally recommended by R. V. Gupta Committee.
Various
public banks, state-cooperative banks, and rural banks provide this
credit card scheme to the farmers so that they take a loan to meet
their agricultural financial needs in a hassle-free manner. Before
this credit card came into the picture, farmers had to screen
multiple times in the banks to get their loan approval and it was a
gruesome process for them. The scheme helps them in taking the
much-needed term loan at a cheap rate of interest.
Features
of Kisan Credit Card Scheme (KCC)
Various
banks offer this card at the moment are State Bank of India, Bank of
India and Axis Bank. SBI, the leading public sector bank of India
offers Kisan credit card scheme at a very smart rate of interest. The
idea behind launching this credit card was to make the process of
lending for farmers who generally don’t have a proper intoduction
of the credit card, easy. The various features of this card are
below.
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The rates of interest are generally lower than the other credit cards which makes it perfect for the agricultural loan.
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The applicant gets a free ATM-cum Debit card for all KCC borrowers.
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With the credit card, farmers get the flexible rate of interest on their loan amount.
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The applicant gets personal insurance up to Rs 50,000 in case of death and permanent disability and Rs 25,000 for other risks.
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The farmer can increase the loan amount in case of an increase in the agricultural income.
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Notified crops and areas get insurance under all the KCC Loans.
Kisan
Credit Card Eligibility
To
be eligible for getting a Kisan Credit Card, the farmer must fulfill
certain conditions which are below.
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All farmers can apply for this card whether they are owners or joint cultivator owners.
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Oral lessees, sharecroppers, and Tenant farmers are also eligible for the KCC scheme.
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Self-help groups or joint liability groups which consist of tenant farmers also.
Amount
of Loan and Interest Rate in the KCC Scheme
The
amount of loan in the KCC scheme for the first year is decided by
factors like cultivation cost, post-seasonal harvest expanses, and
land maintenance cost. After the one year, it is assessed upon the
increase in the scale of finance it generates in the subsequent
years. Farmers get the rate of interest at 7% per annum in the SBI
KCC scheme for the first year or before the repayment date whichever
comes earlier. Currently, India has a total of 6.5 Crore farmers who
own the KCC schemes currently and the Indian government is planning
to run a drive to cover the rest of the farmers under the KCC Scheme
to boost the Indian agricultural sector.
Documents
required for KCC Scheme
There
are few documents required to have this essential card for their
cultivation needs. Below are those.
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Properly filled-in KCC application form
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Identity proof - PAN Card/ Adhar Card/ Driving Licence/ Voter ID Card
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Address Proof - Passport/ Adhar Card/ Voter ID Card/ PAN Card
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Details of the landholdings by the applicant
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