Union Bank gears up to implement loan waiver

That's because a team of internal auditors would descend on the branch later this week to validate the list before it is displayed at different branches.

Although Thakur has a list of eligible farmers on excel sheet, he has to now input the data on a software package that promises to speed up the process. A small team of officers, drawn from Union Bank's urban branches in Sangli and head office in Mumbai, explains him how to do that.

"This will speed up the process and we can fill up the data in the format in which we need to submit it to the lead bank in the district, and to the district level coordination committee (DLCC)," says S L Dikhole, deputy general manager, Union Bank, who has come down from Mumbai to monitor the progress.

Dikhole is accompanied by regional manager Anand Manvi from Kolhapur. "We are here to see the preparedness of the branches, to see if they have adequate manpower, if they need support and if they are facing any difficulty in identifying the eligible accounts. We'll also clarify if there are any doubts,'' says Manvi.

"We've been working on a war footing for the last four to five days, feeding the data, identifying the eligible accounts,'' said M. Venkatesh, a senior officer from an urban branch in Sangli.

Every rural branch has been supported with one or two senior officers and a support staff. For every region, the bank has formed five to six teams to help out the rural branches.

The bank has already strengthened its audit team with additional manpower to go around branches in the country and validate the lists. After they return, a team of 120 senior executives will be sent to the rural branches to carry out a second level of check.

"The whole idea is not to miss out on any eligible one," says Lakshman Rao, general manager (priority sector lending), Union Bank, Mumbai.

Conversely, banks need to ensure that farmers who are not eligible for waiver or relief are not included in the list.

Bank branches are required to display two lists by June 30, 2008. One list will be for the small and marginal farmers, who have dues on loans taken between March 31, 1997 and March 31, 2007, which remain unpaid till February 29, 2008.

The second list will be for farmers with holdings of more than 5 acres of land. Such farmers will be eligible for a 25 per cent debt relief, provided they repay 75 per cent of their loans.

After details of the scheme was announced on May 23, clarifying on certain issues, Union Bank has reworked the lists and estimates that dues worth Rs 1,345 crore of small and marginal farmers would be eligible for waiver.

The bank also estimates that another Rs 292 crore worth of loans of other farmers could be eligible for debt relief under the one-time settlement scheme.

"Farmers are under heavy debt burden. The objective of the scheme is to give them a reprieve and make them eligible for fresh loans so that the country could ensure food security and stable food prices,'' adds a banker.

Every bank has appointed a nodal officer (not below the rank of a chief manager) as the grievance redressal officer (GRO) for each state. Farmers can approach the GRO if they are eligible and get their names included in the lists.

Every state will have a convenor bank, the coordinating bank for all branches. Every branch is required to send a copy of their lists to the convenor bank that will collate the lists for all the branches. Bank of Maharashtra is the convenor bank for the state of Maharashtra.