Nabard to refinance warehousing

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has launched a scheme for 100 per cent refinancing of loans given for setting up warehouses, godowns, silos and cold storages by all categories of banks at 8 per cent interest rate.

Further, the borrowers will also be provided with an interest rebate of 1.5 per cent for prompt repayment, according to a press release issued by P Mohanaiah, chief general manager of Nabard, on Friday.

The scheme is open for all types of borrowers including individuals, companies and cooperatives who availed loans from banks. However, the proposals sanctioned in the current financial year are eligible for refinance while these projects can be located at production, procurement and consumption centres, including urban areas, the press release added.

The scheme is part of an initiative of the Centre, which has allocated a Rs 2,000-crore corpus for financing warehouse infrastructure. Banks have to repay the refinance available to them in annual installments over a period of seven years, including a moratorium period of a maximum of two years, it said.