Looking at coming elections the political parties are trying to grab vote banks. Working on this farmer continues to get help. Before UPA announced a massive loan write-off, now it is the Congress-NCP government turn. The finance minister Jayant Patil announced reduced interest rate on fresh loans for the farmers who have paid off their debt in time.
In the legislature Mr Patil stated that farmers who will apply for loan up to Rs 25,000 from the three-tier co-operative structure in the state will get a subsidy of 4% in the rate of interest. He added that this subsidy will help them avail loan at 2% effective rate of interest, as the Centre has announced farm loans at 7% rate of interest since 2007 and the state has offered a concession of another 1%. Farmers taking loans in excess of Rs 25,000 but less than Rs 3 lakh would be eligible for a 2% cut in the rate of interest.
Mr Patil informed the Assembly that the state government in its budget had made a provision of Rs 63.64 crore for the next fiscal to bear the cost of this interest subsidy. He said the state has also reserved Rs 204 crore for the co-operative lending institutions to settle all outstanding claims under this scheme. “I am confident that the farmers repaying the loans of the co-operative bodies would be enthused by this decision,” Mr Patil said.
He added that under the relief measures announced by the prime minister for Vidarbha farmers, the government has waived interest amounting to Rs 828 crore on rescheduled principal of farm loan in 2006-07 and 2007-08. This scheme has been announced for six districts of Vidarbha reporting highest number of suicides.
The state will bear a share of Rs 414 crore in this scheme. In 2007-08, the state government had given Rs 130 crore to facilitate farm loan disbursal at a subsidized 6% rate of interest. “This scheme will be continued in 2008-09 with special cut on rate of interest for farmers who have paid their debt as per schedule,” Mr Patil added.
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