The United Progressive Alliance government on Friday increased its loan waiver package by nearly 20 per cent to Rs. 71,680 crore to provide relief to ''big'' farmers, bringing them under the purview of the debt write-off scheme as proposed in the 2008-09 budget.
As per the expanded and modified scheme approved by the Cabinet, in keeping with demands from various quarters including Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, all farmers - small, marginal and big - in 237 identified dry, unirrigated and drought-prone districts in various States will get a minimum one-time debt relief of 25 per cent of their outstanding loan amount or Rs. 20,000, whichever is higher.
Briefing journalists, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram made it clear that the loans of small and marginal farmers would be completely waived, whether they were in the identified districts or other regions.
In view of the inclusion of big farmers in dry land areas holding larger acreage, the scheme would benefit more than four crore small, marginal and other large farmers and cost the exchequer Rs. 71,680 crore as per fresh estimates (unaudited), up from the original estimate of Rs. 60,000 crore, Mr. Chidambaram said.
"Small and marginal farmers will get full debt waiver, while 60-65 per cent of large farmers also get full debt waiver. This is why the cost of the scheme has increased."
The number of small and marginal farmers expected to benefit from the enlarged scheme stood revised to 3.69 crore against the earlier estimate of three crore, while the number of other farmers was scaled down to 59.75 lakh from one crore.
As per the expanded and modified scheme approved by the Cabinet, in keeping with demands from various quarters including Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, all farmers - small, marginal and big - in 237 identified dry, unirrigated and drought-prone districts in various States will get a minimum one-time debt relief of 25 per cent of their outstanding loan amount or Rs. 20,000, whichever is higher.
Briefing journalists, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram made it clear that the loans of small and marginal farmers would be completely waived, whether they were in the identified districts or other regions.
In view of the inclusion of big farmers in dry land areas holding larger acreage, the scheme would benefit more than four crore small, marginal and other large farmers and cost the exchequer Rs. 71,680 crore as per fresh estimates (unaudited), up from the original estimate of Rs. 60,000 crore, Mr. Chidambaram said.
"Small and marginal farmers will get full debt waiver, while 60-65 per cent of large farmers also get full debt waiver. This is why the cost of the scheme has increased."
The number of small and marginal farmers expected to benefit from the enlarged scheme stood revised to 3.69 crore against the earlier estimate of three crore, while the number of other farmers was scaled down to 59.75 lakh from one crore.
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