CM Siddaramaiah announced a waiver of crop loans and short-term loans of up to Rs 50,000 availed from agricult... Read More

BENGALURU: Karnataka has become the fourth state, after UP, Maharashtra and Punjab, to write off farm loans this year. CM Siddaramaiah on Wednesday announced a waiver of crop loans and short-term loans of up to Rs 50,000 availed from agricultural cooperative banks.

The concession will benefit 22,27,506 farmers who had taken loans totalling Rs 10,736 crore from cooperative banks. This puts a burden of Rs 8,165 crore on the state exchequer. The waiver is expected to win the goodwill of farmers towards the Congress government, heading for polls in early 2018.

Iwant the Centre to waive off farmer loans availed from nationalised and commercial banks,” Siddaramaiah said in the legislative assembly, putting the onus on the Centre to do its part.

The CM said Karnataka was the first state in the country to transfer input subsidies directly to bank accounts of farmers. He said, “While some farmers have obtained interest-free loans to the tune of Rs 25,000, others have availed up to Rs 3 lakh. We’ll waive off loans up to Rs 50,000, irrespective of the total loan amount.”

Karnataka’s move assumes significance as it comes in the backdrop of two political developments: One, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the Centre will not fund any waiver of farm loans by states; Two, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi expressing his solidarity with the farming community.

