TRS govt attaches rider to crop loan waive promise

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti government today attached a rider to its promised crop loan waiver saying only those availed between June 2013 and June 2014 up to Rs one lakh would be waived under the scheme.

Immediately after taking oath as Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced on June 2 that his government would waive all crop loans up to Rs one lakh in line with the TRS' election promise, but did not set any cut off period. Today, the Chief Minister held a meeting with bankers and told them that only crop loans availed by farmers between June 2013 and June 2014 would be waived. Already these loans come under the interest-free scheme implemented by the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government under N Kiran Kumar Reddy. The Telangana Chief Minister asked bankers to come with full details on the total quantum of crop loans of up to Rs one lakh in the last one year.

He will hold another meeting with bankers in a week. Because of the rider attached, the loan amount to be waived could work out to less than Rs 12,000 crore, official sources said. It could be anywhere between Rs 7,000 crore and Rs 12,000 crore. We are working out the exact details, the sources said.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Finance Minister E Rajender said the waiver would not be applicable on gold loans though taken for agricultural purpose. We have asked the bankers to come with details on crop loans based on which we will decide the exact quantum to be waived, he said.

We will waive crop loans up to Rs one lakh in tune with our election promise that was reiterated by the Chief Minister. We have also asked bankers to issue fresh loans for the Kharif season, Rajender added. Meanwhile, official sources said a sum of Rs 20,378 crore was distributed as crop loans till March 31, 2014 in Telangana. Of this, Rs 19,600 crore was the aggregate for loans up to Rs one lakh.

Term loans amount to Rs 600 crore (upto Rs one lakh) out of a total of Rs 3,332 crore.