SBI gets Rs 500 cr from Telangana as part of farm loan waiver

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced first installment of reimbursement totalling Rs 17,000 cr last September

State Bank of India has received around Rs 500 crore from the Telangana government as part of the crop loan waiver scheme promised by the now ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti during the Assembly elections in May.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced the first installment of reimbursement totalling Rs 17,000 crore last September and various banks got Rs 4,250 crore, or 25% of this total waived loans.

The Rao administration has said it will pay up to Rs 1 lakh to each of the 36 lakh affected farmers under the scheme.

Under the existing loan waiver scheme, the state announcing the loan waiver should pay up 25% of the total impacted debt to the banks.

"Late September, the Telengana government paid the mandated 25% to various banks. Out of the total (around Rs 4,250 crore), we have received Rs 450-500 crore," SBI managing director for national banking and group executive B Sriram told PTI.

The state has to pay the remaining amount to banks by December 31, he added.

Sriram said a major portion of the fund received includes amount from the standard accounts and some from non-performing accounts.

Following the payment, Sriram said farmers have started to the service/renew their loans.

"Earlier, where the farmers were not coming to renew their debt, but now they have started to come and normal business has started," Sriram said.

When asked about the possible impact on Andhara waiver, Sriram said it is yet to be computed but added that the amount would be pretty high compared to Telangana, as 75% of the bank's farm sector exposure in these two states is in Andhra Pradesh.

He said the banks are now in the process of collating data on loans given to farmers in Andhra, where the now ruling TDP had promised a loan waiver, to access the number of affected farmers.

"The data is still to be collated in Andhra as to how many people...What is the amount. Once that happens then the government will go ahead with some sort of scheme," Sriram added.

Present AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu was the first one to promise to write off loans of farmers impacted by cyclone Phailin that battered both the states last year in the run-up to elections in May. Andhra claims to have over Rs 1.3 trillion worth of farm loans impacted by the cyclone.