No Plans to Waive Farm Loans, says Centre

Minister of State for Finance told in Lok Sabha that there is no proposal under consideration to waive off the loans of farmers including Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe Farmers in the country. 

With many state governments such as Punjab waiving off farmer loans recently, it was under speculation that Centre government might also make such an announcement but Government has cleared that there is no proposal under consideration to waive off loans of the farmers, including Schedule caste and schedule tribes. 

In a written statement in Lok Sabha, the Minister of state for finance, Bhagwat Karad has said that the centre has not implemented any farm loan waiver scheme since ‘Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (AWDRS), 2018. 

He also said “there is no proposal under consideration of the government of India to waive off the loans of farmers including Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe Farmers in the country”. 

Karad also listed major initiatives taken by the Government and the Reserve Bank of India to ease the debt burden of Farmers and welfare of the people engaged in agriculture, including those belonging to Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes. 

He also gave examples of the schemes like interest subvention for short term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh, RBI’s decision to raise the limit for collateral- free agriculture loan from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.6Lakh and direct income support of Rs 6000per year to farmers under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sammman Nidhi. 

A few days back, Punjab CM, Amarinder Gill announced waiver of Rs 590 crore worth of loans of approx 2.5 Lakh members of primary agricultural Cooperative societies (PACS), hence ensuring a relief of Rs 20000 per member. The cheques will be issued at state level by 20, August 2021.