68
4.28 It may be observed that, on an average, the number of RuPay Cards received
at branch as per cent of number of KCC A/c outstanding stood at 28.3 per cent
which was ranging from 9.2% (Punjab) to 69% (Maharashtra). However, this
percentage went up to 43.4 percent when ‘Cooperative Banks’ was excluded and
analysis was made using data on Commercial Banks and RRBs.
4.29 The number of RuPay cards issued to the farmers as per cent of KCC acounts
outstanding stood at 19.8 per cent (average of all three agencies) and this
percentage went up to 27 percent when analysis was made for commercial and
RRBs together ignoring coop banks. The major difference was on account of
negligible number of RuPay cards issued by cooperative banks against a very
high number of KCC accounts outstanding with them (just 4 cards issued against
12113 KCC accounts with cooperative banks).
4.30 The reasons for gap between the number of KCC accounts with the bank branches
vis-à-vis number of RuPay cards issued by bank branches and/or between the
number of Kisan cards issued by bank branches vis-à-vis the number of RuPay
cards handed over by controlling offices to the sample branches, as opined by the
branch managers, are as under:
(i) Controlling offices not making available the RuPay Cards in sufficient
numbers or delay in supply of cards is one of the important reasons for
not issuing the RuPay cards to the farmers, particularly to the new farmers.
It may be observed from Table 4.2 that only 46 branches out of total 71
covered in the study had issued some cards by end of February 2016. The
Cooperative banks in Assam, Bihar and Punjab had not started issuing the
RuPay Cards.
(ii) Bankers were averse of issuing RuPay cards to NPA and other irregular
accounts. There were many KCC accounts which were opened during the
last three four years but many of the farmers had not turned up to banks
for renewal of their accounts and these accounts had become overdue.
For example, The Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank (MBGB) had 57033 KCC
accounts outstanding with it as on 31 March 2015 in the Gaya District of
Bihar. However, only 24352 KCC accounts were renewed during 2015-16.
Bodhgaya branch, MBGB has issued just 450 RuPay card (382 operative
–at least activated on ATM) against 1400 KCC accounts outstanding as on
31 March 2015. PNB, Deewan Branch, Bihar had as many as 800 accounts
irregular out of total 1100 KCC accounts with it. PNB, Etwan, Gaya district
had issued 300 RuPay Cards to 300 regular accounts out of total 900 KCC
accounts with it out of which just 30 cards are being used by the farmers.
(iii) Both the bankers as well as farmers don’t see much utility in RuPay Kisan
Debit Cards because once the KCC loan was approved by the bank and
credited to the farmers’ account, the farmers preferred to withdraw the
entire amount from the bank in just one or two withdrawals. The farmers,
particularly small farmers, didn’t do the need based or expense based
withdrawal, probably to take care of their other household/family needs.
