The Hindu Business Line : Scheme soon to get farmers out of moneylenders’ grip

New Delhi, March 15 The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, has said he will try to work out a scheme to help farmers come out of the clutches of moneylenders.

In his reply to the general budget discussions in the Lok Sabha, Mr Chidambaram pointed out that the States could provide a solution to this problem by enacting a law as it (moneylenders) was a State subject. “I will try to work out a solution. I am seriously concerned,” he added.

Mr Chidambaram noted that the UPA Government had already introduced a debt-swap scheme under which farmers could take loans from the banks to repay the debt they owed to money lenders.

Details’ submission

On the farm debt waiver scheme, Mr Chidambaram said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Nabard would submit the branch-wise particulars of the overdue accounts of farmers as on December 31, 2007 to the Government by March 20 this year.

Provisional estimates indicate that the relief to be offered to farmers would be about Rs 60,314 crore, comprising Rs 50,524 crore of debt waiver to small and marginal farmers and Rs 9,790 crore as relief to other farmers as a one-time settlement (OTS) at 25 per cent of their overdues.

“These figures are provisional estimates. We will have firm estimates once complete data is available. RBI and Nabard have been requested to submit the data to the Government by March 20. “Upon receiving the data, we shall immediately authorise an audit of a random sample of branches in order to verify the correctness of the data furnished,” he said.

Soon after the Budget announcement on the Rs 60,000 crore farm debt waiver, RBI and Nabard had, at the request of the Government, asked scheduled commercial banks, RRBs and cooperative institutions to submit branch-wise particulars of the overdue accounts by March 14.

The Finance Minister highlighted that the goal was to complete the process of debt waiver and debt relief by June 30. This will ensure that the farmers who benefit from the debt waiver and debt relief would become eligible for fresh credit immediately thereafter, he said.

Mr Chidambaram also assured the House that he would “bear in mind” every suggestion that had been made during the discussion and try and incorporate some of them, to the extent possible, in the final debt waiver scheme.

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Scheme soon to get farmers out of moneylenders’ grip