New Delhi, July 25: Close on the heels of government assuring cheaper credit to farmers, Punjab National Bank today slashed the interest to 9.0 per cent for agriculture loans up to Rs 50,000. This interest would be two per cent less than the prime lending rate of 11.0 per cent, a PNB release said here.

The interest rate on loans of Rs 50,000-2,00,000 would be 10 per cent, which is one per cent lower than the PLR.

For loans above Rs lakhs and below Rs 25 lakhs, the interest would be at PLR of 11 per cent, the bank said. This reduction comes within 10 days of Finance Minister Jaswant Singh announcing a drastic reduction in farm loans, which attracted as high as 18 per cent earlier.

Highlighting that the outstanding agriculture advances had posted 34.68 per cent growth to Rs 7,084 crore in 2003-03, PNB chairman S S Kohli claimed that the growth was among the highest in the public sector banks.

The fresh disbursements to the sector registered a 33 per cent rise to Rs 3,748 crore in 2002-03, PNB said. PNB has issued 9.41 lakh kisan credit cards worth Rs 3,212 crore, the bank added.

Bureau Report