Letters to the editor dated September 30, 2019

This refers to ‘Why be prejudiced against loan melas ?’ (September 30). Loan melas are expected to lift the deserving out of poverty by encouraging them to take up endeavours which provide steady flow of income.

But various rural development programmes introduced in the 1980s like the IRDP, DRI and TRYSEM were merely target-oriented without any scope to assess business viability. Since schemes like crop /cattle loans had insurance coverage, the emphasis was on filing insurance claims at the end of the year to recover part of the loan disbursed and appropriate towards the outstanding loan amount. Such government schemes were merely used as tools to garner votes by political parties, and ended as failures.

In this background, one hopes that the recent announcement of the government directing PSBs to hold camps for distributing loans in 400 districts of the country really helps in boosting the economy without adding further stress to PSBs, who are already grappling with the issue of NPAs.

Chennai

This refers to ‘Why be prejudiced against loan melas?’ (30 September). It has been clearly and brilliantly written with good examples. In my opinion, loan melas should be clubbed with CIBIL melas .

The benefits of repayment and importance of CIBIL should be advocated. There should be communication from the bank’s point of view on how it gets hit if borrowers do not make efforts to pay back. It is vital the entire cycle of loans and repayment is explained properly to all stakeholders, and bankers are the best guides when it comes to understanding loan melas .

Vadodara

Apropos ‘GST loses its way as tax evasion continues’ (September 30). The GST was launched to not only streamline the tax filing process but also curb tax evasion. There is no doubt that in last two years, some of the routine harassment in the transportation segment has been reduced significantly, but it will be unfortunate if the GSTN is not able to support the system.

If the ₹45,683-crore fraud from fake invoices recorded by the Finance Ministry is genuine, then it shows that in the last two years, our government has not been able to create a solid infrastructure and system to plug the gap. Even if fake invoices and fake companies cannot be eliminated completely from our ecosystem, there should be visible and sustainable efforts from the government to reduce it considerably.

The government also needs to adopt sector-specific invoice matchmaking, as minimum efforts should get maximum results. Two years is a long enough period to assess the deficiency in our system and take corrective measures.

Noida

This refers to ‘Farm sector awaits its own booster dose’ (September 30). The doubling of farmers’ income by 2022 needs immediate execution of intensive measures to cut down the cost of production and allow easy access for farmers to organised markets. The middlemen involved in each stage of marketing the products are eating away a sizeable amount and thus depriving the farmers of a better price. Prior to the sowing, area-wise cost of production needs to be calculated for crops as per the market prices. Farmers must get institutional credit to meet production, investment and consumption needs at a reasonable interest rate. The use of Kisan Credit Cards for all allied economic activities is imperative to control the excess flow of institutional credit and prevent its diversion for speculative purposes. Landless farmers engaged in the cultivation of crops must be treated at par with other farmers.

While activities allied to agriculture and non-farm are also contributing to the income of the farmers, these need to be endowed. The government must extend stimulus packages to the farming community, besides doubling their income as envisaged.

Kottayam

COMMENT NOW