Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposes 6-year Kisan Credit Card (KCC) tenure and higher loan limits.

Key facts

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed merging all existing KCC instructions into a single unified guideline for banks.
• The proposed KCC framework extends total facility validity to six years.
• Credit limits will be aligned with the officially approved Scale of Finance for each crop season.
• Expenses on technological interventions such as modern farm equipment and agri-tech tools may be formally included as eligible uses under KCC.
• Under the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS), farmers can access short-term crop loans at 7 per cent interest through KCC.
• The government provides 1.5 per cent interest subvention to lending institutions under MISS.
• Timely repayment gives farmers an additional 3 per cent prompt repayment incentive, reducing the effective interest rate to 4 per cent per year.
• The loan limit under MISS has been raised from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh in the latest Budget.
• For animal husbandry and fisheries, interest benefit is available on loans up to ₹2 lakh under MISS.
• By 31 December 2024, about 5.9 crore farmers had been mapped on the Kisan Rin Portal (KRP).
• Interest subvention claims worth over ₹1.08 trillion had been processed through KRP by 31 December 2024.
• As of March 2024, there were around 7.75 crore KCC accounts with outstanding credit of about ₹9.81 lakh crore.