Not considering any farm loan waiver: Centre

The Centre is not going to offer farm loan waiver as it may incentivise the defaulters and discourage the borrowers who have been repaying their loans, Parliament was told on Tuesday.

"The Union Government, at present, is not considering any loan waiver scheme for farmers, as such, waivers may impact the credit culture of a state by incentivising the defaulters, even if they are in a position to repay the loan, and thus, create/amplify the moral hazard by discouraging those borrowers who have been regular in repaying their loans," Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

Further, each waiver granted makes it even more difficult to reject any future similar demand, he said.

The Minister also said that state governments of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Chhatisgarh, Andhra Pradesh , Telangana, and Union Territory of Puducherry have announced their own loan waiver schemes in the past.

Tamil Nadu waived off Rs 5,318 crore to provide relief to 12,02,075 farmers while Maharashtra's debt waiver of Rs 30,500 crore benefitted 31 lakh farmers.

The Karnataka government scheme covered 22 lakh farmers with amount of debt waiver of Rs 8,165 crore while Uttar Pradesh allocated Rs 36,359 crore for loan relief.

Jammu & Kashmir waived was Rs 244 crore for 1.15 lakh farmers while Punjab Government announced debt waiver to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore covering 10 lakh farmers, as per the Minister.

Chhattisgarh government announced 25 per cent of debt amounting to Rs 129.76 crore for 1,89,379 farmers.

The Minister also told Lok Sabha that Puducherry announced the agriculture loan waiver covering loans of all agricultural and allied activities availed through the cooperative structure.

--IANS

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