No proposal under consideration to write-off debt of farmers, says govt

There is no proposal under consideration with regard to farm loan write-off, the government said on Tuesday. However, there is a facility wherein farmers can avail concessional debt, the centre informed Parliament.

It is to be noted that Punjab, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh governments have announced loan waiver in 2017.

In a written reply to both the houses of Parliament, the government on Tuesday said, “There is no proposal at present under consideration of the government to write-off the debt of farmers.”

The government is providing interest subvention to make short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh for a period of one year available to farmers at the interest rate of 7 per cent per annum and in case of timely repayment, the same gets reduced to 4 per cent, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala.

ALSO READ: BSP chief Mayawati resigns from Rajya Sabha, alleges ruling party BJP does not allow her to speak in the House

Replying to a separate query, the minister quoting the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report on ‘Indebtedness of farmers households” in 2003 said: “Of 80.35 million farmers households, 43.42 million (48.6 per cent) were reported to be indebted to either formal or informal or both sources of credit”.

Quoting another NSSO report of 2013, the minister also mentioned that the average monthly income per agricultural household from various sources is estimated to be Rs 6,426 against the average amount of outstanding loan of Rs 47,000 per agricultural household.

To improve economic condition of farmers, Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare S S Ahluwalia said the government is implementing various schemes for increasing farm production and productivity and for doubling farmers’ income.

The MSP has been raised to ensure remunerative price to farmers and the government has also focused on aggregation of small and marginal farmers into groups for overcoming market imperfections and for releasing better prices for their produce, he said while replying separately to a similar query.

With PTI inputs.

ALSO READ | Vice-Presidential Poll 2017: M Venkaiah Naidu is NDA's nominee for the coveted post; Know all about BJP leader