Scheme for Purchase of Paddy Harvesting Machine

What is the Scheme for Purchase of Paddy Harvesting Machine?

Scheme for Purchase of Paddy Harvesting Machine is a term loan scheme of the Pondicherry Industrial Promotion Development and Investment Corporation Limited (PIPDIC), a Government of Puducherry undertaking under the Department of Industries and Commerce. PIPDIC's published schemes of assistance describe the purpose as assisting agriculturists belonging to Puducherry for the purchase of a tractor and harvesting machine to harvest the crops in their vicinity.

Paddy is the principal crop of the Puducherry and Karaikal regions, and harvesting is the sharpest labour bottleneck in the paddy calendar. The crop has to come off the field in a narrow window, and the labour to do it by hand is increasingly scarce and expensive. A mechanised harvester compresses days of work into hours, but costs several lakh rupees, far more than a smallholder's annual margin.

The phrase "in their vicinity" in PIPDIC's own description is the key to how the scheme works economically. The machine is not expected to pay for itself on the owner's land alone. The owner harvests neighbouring fields on hire, and that custom hiring income services the loan. One machine serves a village.

What are the terms?

Loan: up to 70 per cent of the cost of the equipment. The borrower brings the remaining 30 per cent.

Debt-equity ratio: 2:1 for this scheme, as published in PIPDIC's schemes of assistance.

Interest:

A tractor and harvester package will normally sit in the first bracket. A concessional rate of 0.5 per cent below the normal rate applies where the borrower is a woman, or belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, or is a differently abled person.

Investigation fee: 0.50 per cent of the loan applied, plus applicable tax, for loans up to Rs 25 lakh, with a 50 per cent concession for SC and ST applicants.

Application fee: Rs 100 for a loan up to Rs 25 lakh.

Who is eligible for the paddy harvesting machine loan?

You can apply if:

• You are an agriculturist belonging to the Union Territory of Puducherry, including the Karaikal region where paddy cultivation is concentrated.
• You are buying a tractor and a paddy harvesting machine, new.
• You can fund the 30 per cent margin yourself, consistent with the 2:1 debt-equity norm.
• You hold agricultural land and can produce patta, chitta and adangal.
• You can offer immovable property as collateral meeting PIPDIC's valuation norms.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not an agriculturist of Puducherry. A contractor or trader from outside the territory buying harvesters as a business does not fit the scheme's description.
• You want to buy a second-hand tractor or harvester. PIPDIC's transport and equipment lending is directed at new assets, and purchase of existing machinery is dealt with separately under the scheme for purchase of existing assets, which requires a unit in existence for two years and charges 1 per cent above the prevailing rate.
• You have no immovable property to offer as security and no guarantor who can.
• You are an existing defaulter with PIPDIC, a bank or a cooperative institution.
• You want a subsidy on farm machinery. This scheme is a loan. Subsidies on agricultural implements in Puducherry are administered by the Department of Agriculture, and a farmer should check with the Department separately, a subsidy from the Department and a loan from PIPDIC address different parts of the same purchase.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the paddy harvesting machine scheme

1. Get a quotation for the tractor and harvester from the selected supplier, with detailed specification and catalogue. Work out 70 per cent of that cost, that is the maximum PIPDIC will fund, and confirm you can raise the remaining 30 per cent.
2. Assemble the land records, patta, chitta and adangal, that establish you are an agriculturist of Puducherry, along with residence proof.
3. Register as a New Customer on pipdic.in and log in to the customer account.
4. Open the loan application form under Loan Applications. The Application Upto 25 Lakhs form covers most tractor and harvester proposals.
5. Fill in the details and upload documents. The quotation, land records, identity documents, and the particulars of the property offered as security.
6. Pay the application fee of Rs 100 online at the end of the submission process.
7. Go through appraisal. PIPDIC verifies the quotation, assesses repayment capacity from your own cultivation and the expected custom hiring income, and values the security property through a Chartered Engineer from its approved panel.
8. Complete documentation after sanction, original and antecedent title deeds, 30-year encumbrance certificate, valuation certificate, patta, FMB copy, adangal certificate where agricultural land is offered, and the legal opinion report. Disbursement typically goes to the supplier against invoice.

How do I check my application status?

1. Log in at pipdic.in with the customer account used to apply and open the application status view.
2. Quote the application number issued at submission.
3. Contact The Managing Director, PIPDIC Ltd., No. 60, Romain Rolland Street, Puducherry 605001: 0413-2334361, info@pipdic.com.
4. Use the Enquiry or Grievance form on pipdic.in if the file is not moving.

Common reasons applications are rejected

• Agriculturist status not established. Without patta, chitta and adangal in the applicant's name, PIPDIC cannot place the application within this scheme.
• Second-hand equipment proposed.
• Margin not available. With a 2:1 debt-equity norm and 70 per cent funding, the applicant must show roughly a third of the cost.
• Adangal not produced where agricultural land is offered as security. PIPDIC's documentation checklist names this specifically.
• Title problems: encumbrances over the 30-year period, or land in a deceased person's name without a legal heir declaratory decree from a competent court in Puducherry, or a legal heir certificate from the Tahsildar for Tamil Nadu property.
• Repayment capacity thin, a small holding with no realistic custom hiring plan does not support a machine of this cost.

Key dates

PIPDIC accepts applications through the year. There is no seasonal window, but there is a practical one: a harvester bought too close to the paddy harvest is of little use in that season, and appraisal, documentation and delivery all take time. Applying well before the harvest season; several months ahead: is the sensible approach.

Help and contact

• The Managing Director, PIPDIC Ltd., No. 60, Romain Rolland Street, Puducherry 605001 to 0413-2334361, info@pipdic.com
• General Manager (Administration), PIPDIC Ltd.: mobile 9894653835
• Online applications; pipdic.in
• Scheme list: pipdic.in/pipdic_schemes
• Financial norms: pipdic.in/financial_norms
• Documentation checklist: pipdic.in/checklist_doc
• Department of Agriculture, Government of Puducherry, for implement subsidies, which are separate from this loan