Committee to submit report on loan waiver

Mumbai: The BJP-led state government has set up an 11-member committee to give suggestions on waiving off farmer loans and bringing them back into the credit system. The additional chief secretary of the finance department will head this committee. However, the committee has not been given any deadline to submit its report.

A government resolution (GR) issued on May 11 said that due to drought conditions, natural calamities and other reasons, farmers have been left unable to repay their loans and on defaulting, have become ineligible for fresh agricultural loans. With over 2,700,000 farmers still out of the institutional credit system, they need to be brought back into the system, the GR said.

The committee has the general manager, RBI; additional chief secretary (planning); principal secretary of agriculture; divisional commissioner of Pune; cooperation commissioner and registrar cooperative societies; chief general manager, NABARD and others among its members.

During the recent budget session of the state legislature, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that the government also wanted to put in place a system for 1.34 crore-account holding farmers, who regularly repaid loans. He had said that the government would have to bear a burden of Rs 30,500 crore if it waived loans of 3,100,000 farmers.