Congress Govt Plans to Waive Off Crop Loans of Farmers Left Over by BRS Govt

Hyderabad: The state government intends to start the `2 lakh crop loan waiver programme by July 27 and wrap it up by August 15, the deadline set by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

Farmers whose loans were not waived by the BRS government will also be included in the scheme. Besides, about 13 lakh farmers whose dues were not waived by the previous BRS government will also benefit. The government has set a cut-off date of December 13, 2018.

The government has drafted an action plan for the purpose, and will be presented to the Cabinet for approval next week.

According to an estimate, `25,000 crore was required to the waive loans in one go, and the state government was exploring options to moblise the funds. One of the means was to approach the Reserve Bank of India to raise funds in advance through open market borrowings by relaxing the monthly limits. The other option was to mortgage government land with banks.

The Congress government is planning to adopt the norms being followed by the Centre to determine eligibility for the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. If it comes through, serving and former MPs and MLAs, income-tax payers, serving or retired government employees and those with a monthly pension of `10,000 or more will not be eligible for the benefit.

However, the government is considering to extend the benefit to those filing income-tax returns. If implemented, it would reduce the number of beneficiaries and the financial burden some extent.

Official sources said that all these issues will be discussed and

finalised in the cabinet meeting to be held in a week.

In the first term, the BRS government took five years to waive `16,144 crore loans of 35 lakh farmers. It paid banks in four instalments over five years.

In the second term, the farmers had it even worse.

A total of 40.66 lakh farmers were supposed to get `25,916 crore loans waived. The BRS government cut down the number of beneficiaries by restricting the waiver to one family member. With this, the bankers calculated that `20,141 crore was needed to be waived in respect of 36.68 lakh farmers.

With a smaller target, the Chandrashekar Rao government paid back loans of up to `30,000 each to 6 lakh farmers in the first three years till 2022. On feeling the heat from farmers, Rao announced just before the Assembly polls in August 2023 that `7,753 crore will be released to clear loans of the remaining 17 lakh farmers.

Even so, by the time it lost power, the BRS government had cleared the loans of only 23 lakh farmers, leaving 13 lakh farmers in the lurch.

The Congress government now wants to come to the rescue of these 13 lakh farmers who were left in the lurch by previous BRS government.