Bank of Baroda launches initiatives to improve tractor financing

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SME Times News Bureau | 19 Sep, 2020
The Bank of Baroda on Friday announced three new initiatives towards improving credit penetration in farm mechanisation.

The initiatives are focused on providing better financial service to farmers and empowering them towards farm mechanisation, the bank said in a statement.

Executive Director Vikramaditya Singh Khichi said: "Agriculture sector is the only resilient sector with least impact by the Covid pandemic. With more than normal monsoon, the economy is expected to revive through contribution from the agriculture sector."

"At Bank of Baroda, we strive to make our products competitive and improve our processes keeping the customers at the centre. The new cluster model will help in maintaining TAT for customers and improvise the credit quality," he added.

The bank has replicated 'Cluster Model for Tractor Financing' presently operational in its Lucknow Zone in its Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot, Jaipur, Bhopal, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Meerut and Chandigarh zones too.

The 'Cluster Model for Tractor Financing' will ensure a focused approach at all levels with dedicated officers being assigned specific roles to ensure a qualitative and compliance-oriented growth of the segment, apart from reducing the turnaround time, it said.

Secondly, the Bank of Baroda entered into an MoU with Baroda-based Tractor OEM Gromax Agri Equipment Ltd (GAEL), the erstwhile Mahindra Gujarat Tractor Ltd, and an entity of Mahindra Group. The Gujarat government also has a 40 per cent stake in GAEL, which has its registered office and high-tech manufacturing plant in Vadodara.

This MOU will help Bank of Baroda customers to get discounts up to Rs 1 lakh on purchase of tractors directly from the company outlets. Further, on purchase in other states, except Gujarat, a discount up to Rs 15,000 will be given by GAEL in the form of payment of first EMI for its '45 HP' and '50 HP' models.

Thirdly, Bank of Baroda celebrated 'Maha-Disbursement Day' for tractor finance and sanctioned over 600 loans in a single day through the Cluster Model wherein few loans have been sanctioned using the Central Processing Centre (CPC). Sanction letters were handed over to eligible farmers at various locations across the country, the statement said.