Kisan Credit Card bad loans rise by 42% in four years

In a sign of stress in the agriculture sector, scheduled commercial banks, excluding regional rural banks (RRBs), have seen a sharp increase of 42 per cent in bad loans Kisan Credit Card (KCC) accounts, a revolving cash credit facility offered to farmers, in the last four years.

- 

The outstanding NPA amount in the segment surged to Rs 97,543 crore as at end of December 2024, compared to Rs 68,547 crore at end of March 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its reply to the Right to Information The NPA amounts in the KCC segment stood at Rs 84,637 crore in FY2022, which rose to Rs 90,832 crore in FY2023 and to Rs 93,370 crore in FY2024. The amount of NPAs in the KCC scheme stood at Rs 95,616 crore in the first quarter of the fiscal 2025, and Rs 96,918 in July-September 2025 quarter. The NPA classification in the KCC segment is different from other retail loans, where an account becomes an NPA if interest and instalment of principal remain overdue for more than 90 days. The repayment period for KCC loans is as per the crop season (short or long) and marketing period for the crop. The crop season for states is decided by the respective State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC). For short duration crops, the crop season is 12 months and for long duration crops it is 18 months in most states.