A Pilot project has been started in Panchmahal and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat State to expand the reach and capacity of Rural Co-operative Banks and to provide necessary liquidity to the members of rural Co-operative Societies.
Under this project, Bank Accounts of all the members of the cooperative societies are being opened in the concerned District Central Cooperative Banks and Rupay-Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) are being distributed to the account holders.
The details of Rupay Kisan Credit Cards distributed under pilot project in Panchmahal and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat by respective District Central Cooperative Banks is as follows:
S. No. | District | Number of Rupay KCC Distributed |
1. | Panchmahal | 66,234 |
2. | Banaskantha | 28,801 |
3. | Total | 95,035 |
The RuPay Kisan Credit Card is provided to farmers who have an account under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme to provide credit support to the agricultural and allied sector. The Kisan Credit Card Scheme was implemented to provide need based, timely credit support to farmers for their cultivation needs as well as for non-farming activities, in a cost-effective manner. Under the scheme, dairy/fishery farmers are also provided credit support as per the laid down guidelines. The card can be used for ATM, POS and E Com transactions.
Through Rupay-Kisan Credit Card, the farmers are now able to get credit support at reasonably low rate of interest (effectively 4%) and they can also use the Card to meet other financial and incidental consumption requirements. Further, for dairy farmers no collateral is required for credit limit up to Rs. 1.6 lakh. Increased use of Rupay KCC in both the districts through Micro-ATMs with Bank Mitra dairy cooperatives has also increased flow of funds through the cooperative banks ensuring cooperation amongst cooperatives.
During the pilot phase, flow of funds in the rural cooperative banking sector in both the districts has increased many-fold in just few months which is exhibited below in terms of the amount and number of transactions through Rupay Kisan Credit Cards:
S. No. | Activity | June 2023 | September 2023 | Growth Percentage |
1. | No. of transaction | 55.6 thousand | 196.81 thousand | 354% |
2. | Amount of transaction | Rs.27.76 crore | Rs.72.04 crore | 260% |
