The Hindu Business Line : Many banks release beneficiary farmers’ list

The release of the list across its 1,795 branches in the country was in compliance with the Government deadline. The bank has identified 5.73 lakh farmers eligible for the waiver scheme which involved both write-offs and rescheduling of overdue loans on farm advances disbursed between March-end 1997 and March-end 2007. Only those loans that remained overdue till December 2007 would be eligible for the waiver scheme.

At least 4.64 lakh farmers fell within the definition of small and marginal farmers. The farmers would be eligible for complete write-off on loan overdues.

The bank’s senior executives handed out waiver certificates to farmers across the bank’s branches in the country. Most of the beneficiary farmers were concentrated in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The average ticket size of the full waiver is said to be around Rs 30,000. Accordingly, the impact worked out to a little over Rs 1,540 crore (inclusive of one-time settlement), though the amount is expected to be fully compensated by the Government.

Other banks that have finalised the list of farmer beneficiaries included Vijaya Bank, Syndicate Bank, Corporation Bank and State Bank of Mysore.

SBM identified a total of 1.08 lakh farmers to whom waiver certificates were distributed. SBM’s debt waiver scheme would benefit about 71,000 farmers, with an impact of Rs 235 crore. The one-time settlement scheme would have an impact of about Rs 120.65 crore, benefiting 37,000 farmers.

Vijaya Bank was the first to complete identification of the farmers as early as June 23 with a total impact of Rs 313.69 crore comprising 93,000 farmers. The bank’s Chairman and Managing director, Mr Prakash Mallya, verified the compliance at the Gujunur branch, in Bangalore rural district and handed over Debt Waiver Certificates to the beneficiaries of the Scheme.

Our Kolkata Bureau reports: In West Bengal, 10,00,866 small and marginal farmers are eligible for relief amounting to Rs 1,266 crore under the debt waiver scheme and another 15,345 farmers for relief amounting to Rs 29.10 crore under the debt relief scheme, according to Mr P.K. Gupta, Chairman of United Bank of India. The corresponding figures for Tripura are 48,345 (Rs 73.41 crore) and 971 (Rs 1.25 crore) respectively. United Bank of India is the convener bank for the State-Level Bankers’ Committee for both West Bengal and Tripura.

According to Mr T. M. Bhasin, Executive Director of UBI, who visited Orissa to ensure successful impelementation of the schemes, the bank in Orissa provided debt waiver to 15,729 small and marginal farmers and the amount was Rs 20.30 crore and debt relief to 1500 other farmers and the amount was Rs 2.55 crore.

Our Mumbai Bureau reports: Union Bank also announced the completion of its implementation of the debt waiver and relief scheme for farmers with 2,68,000 accounts amounting to Rs 713 crore eligible for debt waiver and 84,000 farmers eligible for 25 per cent relief amounting to Rs 248 crore.

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