Mumbai, August 16 (IANS): The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday advised commercial banks to make Aadhaar cards linkage mandatory for farmers to avail short-term crop loans in 2017-18. The advice to all public and private sector scheduled commercial banks was sent through a RBI notification on the "Interest Subvention Scheme for Short Term Crop Loans during the year 2017-18" issued on Wednesday. "To ensure hassle-free benefits to farmers under interest subvention scheme, the banks are advised to make Aadhaar linkage mandatory for availing short-term crop loans in 2017-18," the notification said. The development comes after the central government approved the implementation of the interest subvention scheme for the year 2017-18 for short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh with some stipulations. "In order to provide short-term crop loans upto Rs 3 lakh to farmers at an interest rate of 7 per cent p.a. during the year 2017-18, it has been decided to offer interest subvention of 2 per cent per annum to lending institutions viz Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Private Sector Commercial Banks (in respect of loans given by their rural and semi-urban branches only) on use of their own resources," the notification read.
