Rs 6,208 cr loan waiver announced for farmers

NAGPUR: The Democratic Front (DF) government on Tuesday announced a Rs6208-crore loan waiver and concession scheme for the over 40 lakh farmers in the state who were not covered under the Central loan waiver package announced earlier this year.

A major part of the Rs71,000-crore Central package went to 38 lakh farmers in the state who defaulted on repayments between 1997 and July 2007. Tuesday’s scheme will benefit 40.15 lakh farmers; both, regular payees, and all the defaulters left out in the Central package. The government will pay the money to the banks from its coffers when farmers apply for fresh loans in March 2009 for the next kharif season.

The scheme waives all loans up to Rs20,000 and offers one-time settlement (OTS) benefit of an equivalent amount on payment of the remaining loan amount to farmers who have loans more than the cut-off Rs20,000.

The scheme benefits 26 lakh regular crop loan payees; 3.55 lakh pre-1997 defaulters; 2.29 lakh farmers with loans taken for agriculture implements and 88,000 farmers with outstanding allied sector loans (dairy, poultry, fisheries); 3.92 lakh short-term defaulters and 3.5 lakh farmers with term-loans.