COIMBATORE: As farmers in many places in TN came out in protest on Monday, condemning the state government’s alleged move to verify CIBIL scores before sanctioning of crop loans by cooperative societies, the government clarified later in the day that the order of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) issued on May 26 has been misread.
Officials from the Cooperation department said that, contrary to the fears raised by the farmers, the order issued by the RCS regarding loans issued through Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme was referring to “CIBIL Statement” and not “CIBIL Score”. CIBIL statement will be verified only to check whether the applicant has taken loans from any other bank under the scheme, sources said.
“The guidelines outlining the procedure for issuing loans under the KCC scheme clearly state that the maximum loan eligibility is Rs 3 lakh. Hence, cooperative banks are required to verify whether the applicant has existing KCC loans from other banks to ensure that the limit has not been exceeded,” an official explained.
The official clarified that the guidelines did not talk about checking the CIBIL score for eligibility. Earlier on Monday, farmers from many districts submitted petitions to their respective collectors, urging them to take the matter at once with CM Stalin for his intervention.
"Many farmers, who have taken agricultural capital loans, educational loans, loans for small and micro-enterprises related to agriculture from nationalised banks are unable to repay their dues due to lack of income from agriculture, and are already facing issues with their CIBIL report,” said M Ganesan, state deputy secretary of Tamilaga Vivasayigal Pathukappu Sangam.
Stating that cooperative societies were their only refuge, Ganesan said including crop loans from cooperative societies in the CIBIL reports will make it difficult for them to get crop or other loans from nationalised banks. (Inputs from Chennai, Madurai and Tiruchy)