Farm Loan Waiver

Many bankers are complaining about deteriorating credit culture. The villain is farm loan waivers, often a promise of political parties ahead of elections

The SKM is an umbrella body of various farm unions, while the joint platform of trade unions consists of the central unions and sectoral worker unions

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday promised loan waiver of up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers in Gujarat, LPG cylinder at Rs 500 instead of the current price of Rs 1,000, free electricity to farmers and up to 300 units of free power to general consumers if his party comes to power in the state. Addressing the 'Parivartan Sankalp Rally' in Ahmedabad, Gandhi made a promises for people of Gujarat, where the Assembly polls are due later this year, including creation of 10 lakh new jobs, building 3,000 English medium schools and free education to girls. "The BJP government here will waive loans of top industrialists, but have you ever heard that they have waived loans of farmers?" Gandhi asked. "I promise to waive loans of up to Rs 3 lakh of each farmer after we come to power in Gujarat, he said.

'Clearly, states seem to be currently living beyond their means and it is imperative that states rationalise their spending priorities in accordance with revenue receipts,' Ghosh said

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday underlined the need for "much-needed" reforms in agriculture sector to improve the status of farmers and asked the governments to think beyond loan waivers

Assembly elections are likely in April or early May in Tamil Nadu

Targeting the opposition DMK, he said the party had promised two acres of land, but failed to implement

So far, a sum of Rs 9,035 crore has been transferred to the accounts of farmers, Pawar told the Assembly.

Irrespective of which among the two is more extravagant, it is the country's GDP growth and its rating that take a beating

Chavan said the government must tell by how much income of farmers has increased in the last five years, as part of its promise of doubling their income by 2022

This loan waiver comes over two years after the Rs 34,000 crore loan waiver announced by the then BJP-Sena government in 2017

Expenditure over subsidy was Rs 20,984 crore in 2016-17, which increased by 62 per cent to Rs 33,894 crore, the CAG report said

Waiving farm loans has led to higher NPA in agriculture

In Bastar, farmers had outstandings of Rs 585 cr in agriculture loans of which Rs 285 cr could not be waived off

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had recently indicated that the government would announce an agriculture package before the 2019-20 Budget, to be presented on February 1

The minister, however, did not clarify whether the relief package would be part of the upcoming Budget on February 1 or it will be announced before that

The government, on the other hand, said flaws are rising due to irregularities at the stage of loan disbursal

The govt, which has already exceeded the annual budget deficit target, has little room for spending in the current year

In a Q&A, Chairman of the Doubling Farmers Income panel claims the goal is achievable as there is huge potential to reduce food wastage and improve prices via an efficient market structure

The farm loan waiver scheme would be implemented in one stroke with required allocation in the budget instead of completing the process in four stages as was planned earlier