Bankers have set aside a half billion pound cash pot to save farmers from destitution amid fears of an SNP funding foul-up.
The Bank of Scotland has made £500million available as concerns grow that the Scottish Government will miss the deadline to process valuable new Cap payments.
According to a report released by the bank, agricultural customers would be “adversely affected” by any delay in the arrival of EU cash.
The Scottish Government insisted it was “pulling out all the stops” to get the deals processed in time.
Cabinet secretary Richard Lochhead admitted in parliament this week that as many as 21,000 applications have yet to be processed before the end of December.
Alex Fergusson, the Scottish Conservative’s rural affairs spokesman, demanded action on the crisis.
He said: “If a bank feels it necessary to put aside half a billion pounds it doesn’t say much for its faith in the Scottish Government’s ability to make these payments on time.
“I applaud the Bank of Scotland for taking this step – but it’s not one that should be needed.
“This is a system which the Scottish Government has complete control over and responsibility for.
“Richard Lochhead has known for a year that these payments may not be processed on time, and still he can’t offer a guarantee to farmers, whose businesses depend on these payments and knowing when they will arrive.”
According to the Bank of Scotland’s agricultural review by Chief Economist Donald Macrae, recent changes to the way CAP works have left farmers afraid they will not get the expected cash-injection in December.
He said: “Following the change from the Single Farm Payment to the Basic Payment Scheme, concerns have been raised about a possible delay to the payments being received in December.
“Bank of Scotland has established a £500 million fund to help agriculture customers who are eligible to receive a Basic Payment and would be adversely affected in the event of a delay.”
Responding, a spokesman for Richard Lochhead said: “This is a brazen and boomerang attack from the Tories, given that the UK Government faces exactly the same challenges in implementing the complex new Cap regime – and indeed had to abandon their Cap IT system – which is why banks across the UK are making provisions to help farmers.
“With the EU having left so little time between policy decisions and implementation of the new Cap, it was always clear 2015 was going to be a challenging year and the Scottish Government has been working with the banking sector for some time to encourage them to support farmers. With over 21,000 SAF applications to process, the Scottish Government is pulling out all the stops to ensure payments are made before the end of the year if possible.”