After doling out Rs 1,500 crore from the Budget for waiving off loans of up to Rs 2 lakh of small and marginal farmers, the Punjab government announced that this was an initial sum and the government would take over the debts of farmers under the scheme and make payments to banks in installments. The announcement was made by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh during the Budget session, when the Congress-led government came under fire from the Opposition for allegedly duping farmers by not fulfilling its pre-poll promise of providing a complete loan waiver. Highlighting that Rs 1,500 crore proposed by Finance Minister Manpreet Badal for loan waivers was an initial sum provided in the Budget to leverage more money to provide for a debt-waiver scheme in installments, the CM said, "We have proposed to take over the debt of farmers covered under the scheme and make payments to banks directly in installments. A total sum of about Rs 9,500 crore (subject to final reconciliation of accounts) will be required to fully implement the debt-waiver scheme, which will take about four to five years to settle with banks. But, farmers will be free from their debt immediately on notification of the scheme, which is expected to take another six to eight weeks."

Source: dna June 23, 2017 01:52 UTC