AP Crop loans: First list by October 18

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has already announced that the crop loan waiver would be implemented in five phases over a period of five years. Officials are now trimming the list of beneficiaries. The first list will be released by October 18 or October 19.

Banks had earlier informed the AP government that there were 80 lakh beneficiary accounts that had availed crop loans. If the government waives loans of all 80 lakh accounts at the rate of Rs 1.5 lakh (upper limit of loan waiver for each family), then the total financial burden on the exchequer would be over '43,000 crore. This will come down by 50 per cent if the beneficiaries list comes down to less than 40 lakh accounts.

To identify genuine beneficiaries, the government has asked all the banks to give details of the farmers, who had taken agricultural loans from the respective banks, by filling a 34-column form, which is aimed at collecting the details of each farmer and the purpose for which the loan was taken.

“The government will identify farmers who have obtained multiple loans. The government has set the process in motion to weed out multiple borrowers,” said AP state planning board vice-chairman C. Kutumba Rao.

The state government has the records of land owned by farmers and it would be easy for the government to identify the ‘bogus borrowers’ once banks submit the details of the borrowers. The deadline for the banks to submit details is October 10 and most of them have completed over 50 per cent of the work.

Mr Naidu has said the loan waiver will be implemented from October 22, on the eve of Diwali.