Bangladesh Bank (BB) unveiled a new agricultural and rural credit policy and programme on Sunday, setting Tk 17,550 crore farm loan disbursement target for the fiscal year 2016-17.
The target is 7.01 per cent higher than that of the previous fiscal (2015-16).
Governor Dr Fazle Kabir unveiled the policy at a meeting with high officials of all scheduled banks at the central bank’s headquarters in the capital.
The farm loan disbursement target was Tk 16,400 crore in the immediate past fiscal year 2015-16.
The new agricultural and rural credit policy and programme has introduced agents for loan disbursement, chocked out strategies to spread rural banking, bought farmers under the institutional financial services, encouraged production of import-substitute crops and emphasized development of fisheries and livestock.
The new policy also focused on boosting farm production, providing farmers with necessary financial support from the banking system.
“I hope the target is achievable for the banks as they have shown tremendous performance in disbursing agro and rural credit last fiscal,” said Dr Fazle Kabir.
The Governor also said that in the last fiscal, banks have altogether disbursed Tk 17,646 crore agro loans, exceeding their annual disbursement target by about eight per cent.
“The new target has been fixed after analysing the lending activities of the banks in the previous fiscal,” he added.
Dr Fazle Kabir, at the meeting, asked the high officials of all scheduled banks to take necessary steps for achieving the agricultural loan-disbursement target through strengthening their activities in rural Bangladesh.
“If any bank fails to achieve the target, it (the bank) will have to deposit the funds with the central bank to the unachievable part of the target. The central bank will not provide any interest for the deposit,” he said.
The Governor also asked the bankers to make the agro-credit available for the farmers without any hassle.
“It is essential to bring qualitative and quantitative changes in the agro credit system for ensuring hassle-free credit to farmers,” he said.
The BB Governor also directed the bank officials to process the agro and rural credit for the farmers within ten days of their loan application.
The central bank chief also asked the bankers to disburse the farm loan to the farmers in their 10-taka bank accounts which they opened earlier.
A total of 34.26 lakh farmers received agriculture and rural credit in the immediate past fiscal year.
