Millers offered loans at 7% interest rate to purchase paddy in Yala season
June 30, 2025 04:12 pm
A concessionary pledge loan scheme for Small and Medium Scale (SME) Paddy Millers and Cooperative Societies has been introduced to purchase paddy in the 2025 Yala season.
The program will be implemented from July 1 to November 15, the Ministry of Finance has announced.
This has been introduced in order to maintain a reasonable price for farmers in the Yala season.
Under the concessionary interest rate, SME Paddy Millers and Cooperative Societies who have a maximum daily milling capacity of 25MT will be issued loans.
All borrowers should have a valid Business Registration obtained from a relevant government institution, and a license issued by the Paddy Marketing Board, the Finance Ministry noted.
Under the loan scheme, millers can obtain loans up to Rs.50 million at interest rate of 7% per annum while the respective loans should be re-paid within 180 days.
The following banks have been selected as Participating Financial Institutions (PFI’s) of this loan scheme.
- Bank of Ceylon
- People’s Bank
- Regional Development Bank
- Hatton National Bank PLC
- Seylan Bank PLC
- Sampath Bank Ltd
- Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC
- DFCC Bank PLC
- National Development Bank PLC
- Nations Trust Bank
- Sanasa Development Bank Ltd
- Amana Bank PLC
- Cargills Bank PLC
- Pan Asia Banking Corporation PLC
The estimated total value of the loans to be disbursed by banks under the loan scheme is approximately Rs. 6,500 million, and it has been planned to purchase paddy at a Minimum Purchase Price (MPP) declared by the Department of Agriculture in order to ensure a reasonable price for paddy harvest of farmers, the Finance Minister added.
