The maximum loan amount under MISS will rise from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh
According to the finance minister, the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS) will now allow loans up to Rs 5 lakh instead of Rs 3 lakh. Currently, Kisan Credit Card loans up to Rs 3 lakh at a benchmark rate of 9 per cent are available to farmers involved in agriculture and related activities under MISS. To reduce the effective rate of interest to 7 per cent, the Center offers a 2 per cent interest subvention on the benchmark rate. It drops to 4 per cent annually with an extra 3 per cent reduction for timely and proper repayment.
The Agriculture Ministry claims that in order to shield small and marginal farmers using Kisan Credit Cards from the distress sale of their produce, the interest subvention scheme also applies to post-harvest loans (for six months after harvest). Since 2006–07, when then-Finance Minister P Chidambaram introduced the Interest Subvention Scheme, the original version of MISS, the Rs 3-lakh maximum limit has not changed. A number of states, including Uttar Pradesh, had called for the scheme’s lending cap to be raised.
The finance minister announced that the government will launch the Export Support Mission with sectoral and ministerial targets. The Mission will be driven jointly by the ministries of commerce, MSMEs, and finance. The Export Support Mission will facilitate easy access to export credit, cross-border factoring support, and support to MSMEs to tackle non-tariff measures in overseas markets.
A new program targeting five lakh women entrepreneurs from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) would be introduced, according to the finance minister. Over the next five years, this will entail providing term loans up to Rs 2 crore. According to Sitharaman, the new plan will draw inspiration from the Stand-Up India initiative. Providing loans from Scheduled Commercial Banks between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and one-woman borrower per bank branch for the establishment of a greenfield business in the manufacturing, services, or trading sector, as well as for agricultural-related activities, was the aim of the Stand-Up India program.
Achieving self-sufficiency, in pulses has been mentioned in the budget. In actuality, India’s imports of pulses were $3,275.25 million between April and November 2024, a 56.6% increase over $2,091.95 million during the same period in 2023
