NABARD has been providing long-term refinance to the approved financial institutions under the provisions of Section 25(i)(a) of NABARD Act, 1981 to supplement their resources for providing adequate credit for taking up investment activities in agriculture and allied activities and rural off-farm sector etc.

1. Objectives: The objectives of the long-term refinance of NABARD are as under.

• Supporting capital formation in agriculture and allied activities, thereby promoting growth of Agriculture, AH, Fishery, Forestry etc. sectors.
• Directing flow of credit for promotion of thrust activities of GoI and NABARD.
• To meet the credit requirement of JLGs and SHGs.
• Support for non-farm sector activities (MSME, Rural Housing & CV), thereby promoting alternate employment opportunities in rural and semi-urban areas.
• Support for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation projects
• Refinance support for credit linked capital subsidy schemes of GoI, whose subsidy is channelized through NABARD.

I. Eligible Institutions

The Institutions Eligible for Refinance are:

• State Co-operative Agriculture & Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs)
• Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)
• State Co-operative Banks (StCBs)
• District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs)
• Commercial Banks (CBs)
• State Agricultural Development Finance Companies (ADFCs)
• Scheduled Primary Urban Co-operative Banks (PUCBs)
• North East Development Finance Corporation (NEDFC)
• Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs/NBFCs-MFIs)
• Small Finance Banks

Purposes:

a. Farm Sector:

• i. Land development
• ii. Minor & micro irrigation, drip irrigation
• iii. Water saving and water conservation devices
• iv. Dairy
• v. Poultry
• vi. Beekeeping
• vii. Sericulture
• viii. Fisheries
• ix. Animal husbandry
• x. Loans to Self Help Groups / Joint Liability Groups / Rythu Mitra Groups
• xi. Dry land farming
• xii. Contract farming
• xiii. Plantation & horticulture
• xiv. Agro-forestry
• xv. Seed production
• xvi. Tissue culture plant production
• xvii. Loans to corporate farmers, farmers' producer organizations/companies of individual farmers, partnership firms and co-operatives of farmers directly engaged in Agriculture and Allied Activities, up to an aggregate limit of Rs 2 crore per borrower
• xviii. Agriculture implements
• xix. Production of high value/ exotic vegetables, cut flowers under controlled conditions i.e. poly house / green house,
• xx. Establishment of hi-tech export oriented production like mushroom, tissue culture labs, precision farming for enhancement of productivity in vegetables and fruits

b. Other Activities

• (i) MSME for both manufacturing and service, that creates employment in rural areas
• (ii) Agri-clinics and Agri-business centres
• (iii) Start-ups, as per definition of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India that are engaged in MSME, agriculture and allied services
• (iv) Rural housing
• (v) Commercial Vehicles
• (vi) Agro-processing
• (vii) Soil conservation and watershed development.
• viii) Agri-marketing infrastructure (including cold storage, warehouse, godowns, market yards, silos etc.) irrespective of their location
• (ix) Non-conventional energy sources.
• (x) Financing in areas of watershed & tribal development programmes already implemented.
• (xi) Plant tissue culture and agri-biotechnology, seed production, production of bio-pesticides, bio-fertilizer, and vermi composting.
• (xii) Bank loans to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), Farmers’ Service Societies (FSS) and Large-sized Adivasi Multipurpose Societies (LAMPS) for on-lending to agriculture.
• (xiii) Loans sanctioned by banks to NBFC-MFIs for on-lending to agriculture sector
• (xiv) KVI (Khadi Village Industries)
• (xv) Rural Schools, health care facility, drinking water facility, sanitation facility and other Social infrastructure in rural areas
• (xvi) Renewable energy like solar based power generators, biomass based power generators, wind mills, micro-hydel plants and for non-conventional energy based public utilities Viz. Street lighting systems, and remote village electrification
• (xvii) Installation of stand-alone Solar Agriculture Pumps and for solarisation of grid connected Agriculture Pumps; installation of solar power plants on barren/fallow land or in stilt fashion on agriculture land owned by farmer.
• (xviii) Construction of oil extraction/ processing units for production of bio-fuels, their storage and distribution infrastructure along with loans to entrepreneurs for setting up Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plants.
• (xix) Custom hiring Units managed by individuals, institutions or organizations who maintain a fleet of tractors, bulldozers, well-boring equipment, threshers, combines, etc., and undertake farm work for farmers on contract basis.
• (xx) Krishak Sathi Yojana
• (xxi) Area development schemes
• (xxii) Loans to entities involved in assisting the decentralized sector in the supply of inputs and marketing of output of artisans, village and cottage industries. In respect of UCBs, the term “entities” shall not include institutions to which UCBs are not permitted to lend under the RBI guidelines / the legal framework governing their functioning.
• (xxiii) Permissible Activities under Food Processing

Any other activities not mentioned above may also be covered if it facilitates the promotion of agriculture and rural development.

Loan Period

The loan period is up to a maximum of 15 years
Refinance Window

a. Automatic Refinance Facility (ARF):

Automatic Refinance Facility (ARF) enables banks to obtain financial accommodation from NABARD, without going through the detailed procedure of pre-sanction formalities. Banks are expected to appraise the proposals at their own level and finance the borrowers. Banks can then claim refinance from NABARD on the basis of a declaration (drawal application), indicating the various purposes for which refinance has been claimed and the loan amount disbursed. In such cases, the sanction and disbursement of refinance are attended to simultaneously by NABARD.

Automatic Refinance Facility is extended without any upper ceiling of quantum of refinance, bank loan or Total Financial Outlay for all kinds of projects under Farm Sector (FS) & Off-Farm Sector.

b. Pre-sanction Procedure:

If the banks intend to avail refinance under pre sanction procedure they are required to submit the projects for approval of NABARD. Before sanction of the same, NABARD appraises these projects to determine its technical feasibility, financial viability and bankability.

Extent of Refinance

The extent of refinance will be up to 90/ 95% of eligible bank loans depending upon the purpose, location of the investment and agency applying for refinance.

Criteria for Refinance

• Technical Feasibility of the project
• Financial viability and bankability
• Organisational arrangements for credit supervision
• CRAR norms for FIs
• Net NPA norms for FIs
• Net profit norms for FIs

Ultimate Borrowers

Although refinance is provided to SCARDBs / StCBs /DCCBs/ CBs / SFBs/ RRBs / ADFCs / PUCBs / NBFCs/ NBFC-mFIs the ultimate borrowers of investment finance may be individuals, proprietary/ partnership concerns, companies, state-owned corporations or co-operative societies, SHGs, JLGs, FPOs etc.

Formulation of special refinance schemes

To address the issue of rural migration and to give boost to the agriculture and rural sector in the post COVID era, NABARD introduced three special refinance schemes. In addition to this, NABARD introduced a special refinance scheme on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene to provide clean water, sanitation and good hygiene to protect human health during infectious disease outbreaks.

1. Special Long Term Refinance Scheme for PACS as MSC

The scheme intends to develop all the potential PACS as Multi Service Centres (MSCs) over a period of three years commencing from the FY 2020-21 by providing concessional refinance to StCBs at 3% to support PACS to create quality infrastructure (capital assets) and increase their business portfolio in tune with needs of the members.
Under this line of credit, NABARD has envisaged transformation of 35,000 PACS in three years commencing with the transformation of 5,000 PACS in FY21 and 15,000 PACS each during FY22 and FY23. Rs 5,000 crore have been earmarked under this special dispensation for the year 2020-21. The ultimate interest rate to be charged from PACS will not be more than 1% over and above the interest rate charged by NABARD and will be shared by StCB & CCB as per the mutually agreed terms. Repayment period of refinance will be up to 7 years.

2. A Special Long Term Refinance Scheme for promoting Micro Food Processing Activities

The objectives of the scheme are to encourage banks to lend micro-food processing activities and create sustainable livelihood and employment opportunities for rural youth as well as reverse migrants due to COVID-19 pandemic in the rural areas.
The scheme also envisages modernising and enhancing the competitiveness of the existing individual micro enterprises and ensuringe their transition to formal sector in rural areas. The refinance scheme will give fillip to the recently launched “PM Scheme for Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PM FME)” under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan by MoFPI, GoI under which about Rs 25,000 crore investment is expected in the sector. The concessional refinance at 4% is available to eligible financial institutions viz., commercial banks, SFBs, StCBs, RRBs and NABARD subsidiaries.

3. Schematic Refinance for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

The UN-framed Sustainable Developmental Goals aim to provide clean water and sanitation for all. This is imperative during the outbreak of a pandemic. Thus, NABARD decided to extend concessional refinance support to all eligible Banks/ FIs to enable them to deepen institutional credit to beneficiaries in WASH-related activities. Financing under the scheme will be at a concessional rate of interest for various categories of FIs.

4. Special Refinance scheme for financing under Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) for RRBs, Cooperative Banks and subsidiaries of NABARD

To encourage the rural financial institutions for funding projects under AIF and also funding to eligible beneficiaries being covered under AIF, a special refinance scheme for RRBs, Cooperative Banks and NABARD Subsidiaries is formulated for a tenor of 7 years with concessional interest rate to be decided by ALCO from time to time.

5. Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM)- Refinance Policy for schematic lending 2022-23

NABARD will provide concessional refinance to the Regional Rural Banks and State Cooperative Banks against the loans extended by them to all women SHGs under NRLM operationalized by the Ministry of Rural Development, GoI.