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According to the sources in the government, Naidu is expected to announce the setting up of an expert committee to suggest on how to go about with the implementation of agriculture loan waiver programme immediatly after his swearing-in as the chief minister tomorrow evening.
The committee is expected to be given 45 days time to submit its final report. In the meantime it will be asked to come up with the basic guidelines to identify loans eligible for the debt waiver scheme within fifteen days, sources said.
It may be recalled that in the election manifesto Naidu promised to waive off the agriculture loans taken by the farmers in 13 districts of Seemandhra besides insisting that he would put his first signature on a file related to the debt waiver scheme.
Naidu was in constant consultations with the financial and banking experts ever since the officials told him that the total liability would be very huge to handle by the state government.
There were Rs 87,000-crore rural loan dues in the banking system in 13 districts of residual Andhra Pradesh, which include term loans and loans taken by the rural self-help groups(SHGs), according to the state level bankers committee(SLBC).
Out of this, the crop loans, including the gold loans taken for the purpose of cultivation alone were worked out to be around Rs 59,000 crore.
The officials briefed Naidu that the least financial commitment expected to arise out of this programme would be about Rs 34,000 crore even after eliminating all other types of loans including gold loans, if ever the government wants to some how stick to its promise.
Raising the resources for a programme of this scale will be a very difficult task for the state which is expected to start with a revenue deficit in the first year even though the government would be seeking to find ways for the repayment of these loans in a five year period, according to the officials.
As any tinkering with this particular election promise would potentially trigger adverse reaction from the public, Naidu is unlikely to get into the specifics of the loan waiver even while signing the first file related to the scheme.
