Hyderabad: Former Nabard chairman P. Kotaiah who is heading a panel constituted by AP to study the loan waiver for farmers, met RBI governor Raghuram Rajan at Mumbai on Tuesday. He held discussions with Mr Rajan for about an hour and explained under what circumstances the AP government had announced waiver of farm loans.
According to sources the Kotaiah committee requested the RBI to accept reschedule of loans or install payment by the state government.
The state government must decide two things first, one is the dead line for the waiver of farm loans and the amount how much should be waived. The government sources said after the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s visit to Delhi some clarity may come on this issue. The government has concentrated on convince the RBI and union finance Ministry to reschedule the loans otherwise to convince on the install payment by the government. If the RBI and Union government finance ministry will not accept to reschedule the loans or for install payment the state government is preparing for alternative plan. The scheme will be implemented to small and marginal farmers only.
According to sources the farmers take Rs 25,000 loan per acre. Small and marginal farmers have below 6 acres land. That means if a farmer has 6 acres land he might have been taken RS 1.5 lakh loan. If the government will decide to waive Rs 1.5 lakh loan small and marginal farmers will cover. For this the state government issue bonds to the farmers. At present farmers have to pay their loan amount to the banks, the government will pay that amount in 3 or 4 years time. The officials said only this option is left for the state government if the RBI and Union government will not accept its proposal. By the month end the state government will announce its decision on waiver of farm loans.
