Haryana banks yet to implement debt swap scheme successfully

Barring few nationalised banks and one regional rural bank, major banks in Haryana, including private sector and cooperative banks, have failed to implement the debt swap scheme successfully to rescue the farmers from the clutches of money lenders who charge exorbitant rate of interest.

Not only this, the banks in the state are yet to raise the debt swap limit from Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 as decided during State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) in December 2010.

The proposal of raising the limit is lying with their respective boards. According to the scheme, banks have been given a target to disburse three per cent of the total disbursement under agriculture. However against the target of three per cent, the target achieved by the banks in Haryana is merely 0.93 per cent (October-September 2011). Banks in Haryana have disbursed only Rs 125.01 crore during October-September 2011, against the designated target of Rs 403.49 crore. The total disbursement in the state under agriculture during the period was Rs 13,449.79 crore.

Banks like Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank , Union Bank of India and Syndicate Bank have disbursed money under the scheme. Whereas, none of the private sector banks and cooperative banks have implemented the scheme during the period.

Further, in order to save the farmers from the money lenders, some of the banks like Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, Bank of India, State Bank of Patiala and Haryana Gramin Bank had approved raising the debt swap limit from Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000.

It is mentioned that since some of the banks have already approved the enhancement of debt swap limit, therefore there should not be any problem in approving the same by the remaining banks.

During the 118 SLBC meet held on Monday, the controlling heads were requested to advise their field functionaries to lend liberally under the scheme and get the farmers out of the clutches of money lenders. The representatives of private, cooperative and nationalised banks informed that the proposal of raising the limit is lying with their respective boards.

In a move aimed at alleviating the burden of debt-ridden farmers, SLBC meet in December 2010 gave its nod for doubling the ceiling on loans refinanced under the Debt Swap Scheme in Punjab and Haryana to Rs 100,000.

Earlier, bankers had pointed out that the lower ceiling of Rs 50,000 was as one of the major reasons behind the failure of the debt swap scheme in the state.