The company says repeated losses and transport disruptions have made goat trading too risky; it is selling sugar Rs16 a kg below market prices and raising the purchase limit to 25 kg per customer.

More than 21,500 small borrowers were blacklisted in the last fiscal year, raising concerns that a system created to bring finance to poor households is leaving some of its most vulnerable users out of formal credit.

Police investigations and arrests over lending and loan recovery are raising a fundamental question about who should police the banking system: the central bank or law enforcement agencies.