Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked public sector banks to come
out with the list of farmers for the purpose of debt waiver scheme by
25 June, so that these loans could be waived off by the end of this
month, as outlined in the budget.
On
25 June 2008, we hope to get the list (of farmers), the Finance
Minister told various PSU banks heads through a video-conferencing.
He
asked these banks to get themselves satisfied by 23 June that
inspection and superchecks in this regard have been done and list of
farmers prepared.
On 24 June, Financial Services Secretary Arun
Ramanathan will get in touch with PSU banks Chairmen to take the
confirmation that the list is prepared, he said.
The Finance
Minister also clarified that interest not serviced as on December 31,
2007 will also be included for the purpose of debt waiver in the case
of investment loans.
In case of loans to farmers through
self-help groups, Chidambaram said disaggregated data could be
maintained in books of these groups, provided banks are satisfied with
that data.
Under the loan waiver scheme, loans provided
directly to group of individual farmers like Self Help Groups will also
be included, but disaggregated data of the loan extended to each farmer
must be maintained.
In his budget speech, the Finance Minister
has set 30 June as the deadline for waiving debt of farmers with
holdings up to three hectares.
The size of the loan waiver was
subsequently enhanced to Rs 71,680 crore, and its coverage widened to
include seven million more marginal and small farmers, taking the
number of such beneficiaries to 43 million from the originally proposed
40 million.
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