Maha Govt mulls partial loan waiver for farmers

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, March 26

The Devendra Fadnavis government is considering a partial loan waiver for farmers in an effort to break the logjam in the state Assembly, which has been paralysed by the Opposition Congress and NCP’s continuous disruptions.

According to government sources, the state finance department is preparing a scheme under which around 40 per cent of farmers’ loans from the cooperative banks that are pending for payment may be waived off. Cooperative banks account for much of the farmers’ loans across Maharashtra though nationalised banks, too, have been providing loans to farmers under priority sector lending programmes.

“We need the state and Central governments and the Reserve Bank of India to get involved if pending farm loans need to be completely waived off,” a state government official said.

It is not clear how the cash-strapped government will raise the funds for waiving farm loans. CM Devendra Fadnavis told the Assembly last week that 1.36 crore farmers had availed of loans worth Rs 1.14 crore. Out of these, debts worth Rs 31,057 crore have gone bad. Fadnavis said waiving off the bad debts would set a bad precedent as it would in future discourage all farmers from paying off their loans. 

The Congress and NCP have announced that they would take out ‘Sangharsh Yatras’ across the state to corner the Fadnavis government. The Shiv Sena has also been demanding waiver of loans both inside and outside the Assembly apart from joining the Opposition in disrupting the proceedings.