Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday announced that the state government would waive off loans up to Rs 50,000 in value taken by farmers before June 20, 2017. Only loans from cooperative banks will be waived off.
In these critical times, our govt will waive farmer loans upto Rs. 50000, availed till 20/06/2017 from cooperative banks. #EmpoweringKtaka
— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) June 21, 2017
The move will waive of Rs 8,165 crores worth of loans, benefitting around 22 lakh farmers across the state. Additionally, the Chief Minister also requested the Prime Minister’s Office to waive loans from commercial banks, in consideration of the acute drought currently affecting the state.
Making the announcements during his speech in the Vidhan Sabha, the Chief Minister said the move would benefit a total of 10.25 lakh farmers, including 8.75 lakh farmers up to 5 acres. The initiative would provide double the relief announced by the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, he pointed out. Further stating that the state government is strongly ‘pro-farmer’, the Chief Minister stated that Karnataka is the first state in country to transfer input subsidies directly to bank accounts of farmers.
The state government also decided to raise the ex-gratia for suicide affected families to Rs. 5 lakh from Rs.3 lakh.
The government has decided to form a committee to set the criteria to waive off loans. However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier in June had said the Centre would not fund for loan waivers for farmers, adding that the states must fund for this on their own expense.