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| While the credit issue needed to be addressed as the farm sector gets short shrift from banks despite a better credit record than industry, the sugarcane hand-out is wholly devoid of economic logic. |
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| Both the moves, of course, are part of the bid to woo rural voters ahead of the Assembly polls in five states later this year. The saving grace is that neither step involves extra outflow from the exchequer. |
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| For, while the consequences of cheaper credit will be borne by banks, the dole for cane farmers will come out of the Sugarcane Development Fund (SDF), which is funded by sugar factories through a cess on sugar production. |
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Their merits apart, it remains to be seen if action will follow pronouncements. In the case of lending rates for agriculture, the government
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