Hyderabad: Accusing bankers of lacking humanity and social responsibility and being concerned only about profits and losses, finance minister Etala Rajender on Friday lashed out at public sector banks for harassing farmers in the disbursal of crop loans.
Mr Rajender, along with agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, took part in State-Level Bankers’ Committee meeting here to finalise the annual credit plan for the agriculture sector for 2017-18.
The finance minister took the bankers to task for denying crop loans under one pretext or the other and forcibly collecting interest from farmers even after the government released the crop loan waiver funds.
“You should realise that state government is not a private limited company. It has a social responsibility. It cannot default on repayment of loans like private firms or individuals though sometimes, there may be delay sometimes in repayment. Unfortunately, banks are dealing even with the government like they deal with private firms,” he said.
Mr Rajender expressed anger at bankers for collecting Rs 271 crore as interest from farmers citing delay in clearing arrears of crop loan waiver scheme.
“We paid over Rs 17,000 crore to banks towards crop loan waiver scheme in four instalments as promised. Banks earned over Rs 1,200 crore through this scheme. Just because there was some delay in release of funds, you harassed farmers by denying them loans and forcibly collecting interest,” he said.
When bankers tried to explain to him that they collected interest because no GO was released for payment of Rs 271 crore, Mr Rajender showed a copy of the GO and said, “Is the government not depositing thousands of crores in your banks every year? Are you not earning profits from it? Are we seeking exemptions for our personal needs? We sought exemptions for farmers which is the social responsibility of all.”
He said banks should not cater to the needs of only the rich but also have social responsibility towards the poor and downtrodden.
