Sops to farmers exceed Rs 60,000 cr estimate

The amount of debt waiver and debt relief to the farmers has exceeded by over Rs 6,569 crore against the original estimates of February this year, Lok Sabha was informed today.

As per the provisional bank-wise data received from the lending institutions, the total amount of debt waiver and debt relief is Rs 66,569.22 crore against the initial estimate of Rs 60,000 crore in February, 2008.

"The final figures will be available only after the Statutory Audit of the lending institutions," Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of State for Finance, said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

On the issue of reimbursement to lending institutions, the Minister said that out of Rs 25,000 crore to be reimbursed in 2008-09 as the first instalment, so far the government has released Rs 15,000 crore and the balance Rs 10,000 crore would be released shortly.

He said that no case of attachment of properties of farmers covered under the Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief (ADWDR) scheme by the banks has been reported.