The National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development (NABARD) on April 26, 2024, notified regarding the Incentive Scheme for Customer Service Points (CSPs)/Business Correspondents (BCs) of Banks operating in Hilly States/UTs.
A pilot scheme for providing financial assistance to CSPs/BCs of Banks operating in North Eastern States was introduced by NABARD (Circular No. 171/DFIBT-04/2023 dated 11 August 2023) to offset some of their costs towards transport and increase their net income to make them earn sufficient income for continued operations in these areas. It has been decided to extend a similar scheme to CSPs/BCs of banks operating in Hilly States/UTs viz., Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Uttarakhand.
The incentive under this scheme will be over and above the fixed commission and variable commission already being paid by the Banks. The amount is an incentive payable directly to an individual BC or BC agent or CSP operator henceforth referred to as “Operator” facilitating customer transactions upon meeting the minimum number of transactions.
The following are the details of the pilot scheme:
• Operative Period: The operative period of the scheme will be one year, i.e., from April 01, 2024, to March 31, 2025. Further extension of the scheme, if needed, will be decided based on the outcome achieved under the scheme.
• Eligible Institutions: The scheme will apply to all Banks operating in hilly states/UTs (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand).
• Eligible Individuals: Operators directly engaged by Banks or Operators engaged by Banks through Corporate BCs. In other words, the individual providing the service will be eligible for the incentive and not the agency which has engaged them. The operator will be eligible for one incentive irrespective of the number of villages served by him/her.
• Eligible Locations: The Operators working in rural centres, i.e., Tier 5 & Tier 6 Centres (population up to 9,999) as per Population Census 2011.
• Eligibility for claiming incentive under the Scheme: Financial Incentive of ₹1,000/- per month to be paid to Operators of banks placed in hilly states/UTs for performing 50 and above financial transactions per month on an average, subject to a maximum of two top-performing Operators per village.
The indicative list of broad activities that may be made available at Operator outlets is indicated in Annexure 1.
[Circular No. 77/DFIBT-01/2024]
