 "Farm loan waiver: Telangana, AP struggle for resources")
The Andhra Pradesh government has fixed the meeting of the State-level Bankers' Committee on June 30 in the hope of making a last minute announcement in favour of the reschedulement of farm loans. If the banks reschedule the loans, the two governments that promised waiver need not struggle for resources to fund this costly scheme immediately.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is already in Delhi to get the Finance Minister's help in this regard. Efforts to convince the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the repayment of dues in multiple installments appeared to have met with little success.
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According to government sources, the RBI is willing to consider the reschedulement of agri loans only if the government agrees to arrange for the repayment within one year.
The expert panel constituted by the AP government met RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday to ask for rescheduling. However, no clear assurance came from the RBI even though one of the panel members, when contacted, said the regulator was in principle agreeable to the reschedulement.
With little political bargaining power at hand, TDP and TRS governments are unable to bring any direct pressure on the BJP government. A couple of BJP ministers in the Centre have already issued statements saying the farm loan waiver was not part of the party’s election manifesto.
A senior government official said Naidu had to visit Delhi this time without having a meeting fixed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, he would be meeting the Prime Minister when the latter comes to the state on June 29 on a two-day visit to witness the launch of PSLV-23 rocket at Sriharikota in Nellore district.
Ministers in the Naidu government have already stated they would take the help of the Centre to convince the RBI to facilitate loan reschedulement.
Telangana mulls various alternatives
On the other hand, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has dropped his plans to visit Delhi on this issue, according to sources. Various alternatives were being considered with regard to the implementation of the scheme and loan reschedulement was only one of them, the sources said.
Rao recently told the state legislative Assembly that the financial liability arising out of the debt waiver scheme would be around Rs 19,000-crore, which is way lower compared with the promised debt waiver size of Andhra Pradesh. “Even then, it is hard to find that much money,” a senior government official said while refusing to elaborate on the alternatives.
The officials in the Telangana government have become tightlipped after the political leadership faced adverse public reaction over limiting the debt waiver scheme to the 2013-14 agriculture year.
The AP government had stayed non-committal on the size and scope of its loan waiver scheme.