RBI announces relief measures for poultry industry

Mumbai, Feb 19 (UNI) The avian influenza-hit poultry industry in India, especially in West Bengal, has been provided some relief by the Reserve Bank of India that today sought banks to convert principal and interest due on working capital loans and also interest on term loans up to a three-year-long term loan with a moratorium of one year.

The RBI, in a notification, asked the banks to extend concessional facilities to the poultry unit financed by them following the onset of the bird flu on December 31, 2007 to mitigate the loss suffered by the poultry industry due to culling of birds as well as steep fall in the demand for poultry products and their prices.

The Apex Bank said the converted loans might be recovered in installments based on projected future inflows over a period of up to three years with an initial moratorium of one year. The first year of repayment may be fixed after the expiry of moratorium period, the Central Bank said.

The remaining portion of term loans may be rescheduled similarly with a moratorium period up to one year depending upon the cash flow generating capacity of the unit.

The reschedulement/conversion might be completed before April 30 and such loans might be treated as current dues.

The Apex Bank said after conversion, the borrower would be eligible for fresh need based finance.

It said the relief measures as above may be extended to all accounts of poultry industry, which were classified as Standard accounts as on December 31, 2007.

A similar circular would be issued by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development for State/District Co-operative Banks and RRBs.

UNI VK NM SKB SR RS2005