The Telangana Government has notified guidelines for the implementation of farm loan waiver for all loans between outstanding April 1, 2014, and December 11, 2018, with a cap of ₹1 lakh for each farmer.
Commercial banks have been asked to prepare a list of beneficiaries with the help of local government employees. The total outgo, estimated at ₹16,000 crore, will be disbursed in four instalments.
However, all loans below ₹25,000 will be cleared at one go.
The loan waiver scheme, announced by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the 2019 elections, would cover only institutional loans and does not cover loans taken by farmers from non-institutional sources.
All crop loans sanctioned or renewed on or after April 1, 2014 and outstanding as on December 11, 2018, are eligible for the waiver.
However, gold loans availed from urban and metropolitan banks or bank branches as crop loans will not be eligible for waiver. Loans availed from the these banks, which also service some rural areas, are eligible for loan waiver.
It will cover short-term production loans and crop loans against gold. Each family will be eligible for a waiver of ₹1 lakh only, including principal and interest. The amount, however, will not include processing charges, legal charges, insurance premium or inspection charges.
The Agriculture Department will develop a portal to help complete the process, including collection, processing and finalisation of the list of beneficiaries.
The government order issued on Tuesday comprised guidelines on identification, verification and finalisation as wel as the process to disburse the waived amount through cheques.
The TRS, which announced a similar scheme in the maiden elections to Telangana, repeated their promise in the elections in 2019.
Though the Congress party came out with a ₹2-lakh loan waiver scheme to attract farmers, the ruling party went ahead with the ₹1-lakh waiver scheme.
Tags: farm loan waiver, Hyderabad, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, TRS, Congress, Telangana