However, SBI reportedly said that the bank has not done away with the agreement and that it was planning on giving Rs 300 crore as loan
Kerala's agriculture minister has said that the state will proceed with the stand that all farmers should close their State Bank of India accounts, mentioning that banks who profit from farmers while not willing to help them should not benefit from them.
According to Matrubhumi, Kerala's Minister for Agriculture, V.S. Sunil Kumar, said that earlier, the State Bank of Travancore used to be more generous toward the farmer. Kumar reportedly said that all that changed after the SBI-SBT merger, and that most farmers, like in Alapphuza have accounts with SBI instead of Co-operative ones.
The report says that the banks had agreed to provide the loans as long as the farmers produced their Paddy Registration Sheets (PRS), which contains details of the paddy supplied to SupplyCo (Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation). SBI however, is said to have backtracked on their word, invoking Kumar's ire.
Matrubhumi says that the decision was taken at a meeting which was attended by bank owners, the civil supplies minister, the finance minister, the agriculture minister and also a representative of SBI. The amount was reportedly sanctioned at the surety of the finance department, and SupplyCo was supposed to return the money to the banks after state and central funds had received sanction. The report says it was also supposed to pay a 9.5 percent rate of interest on the money.
However, SBI reportedly said that the bank has not done away with the agreement and that it was planning on giving Rs 300 crore as loan. The bank reportedly said that the request for sanction had been sent to its corporate office, which looks after transactions, adding that the updates were positive.