The Maharashtra Government on Tuesday announced that pending the farm loan waiver and the subsequent disbursal of fresh loans by the banks, it would extend an immediate financial assistance of Rs10,000 each to the needy farmers across the State for purchasing seeds, manure and pesticides for the forthcoming Kharif season.
Talking to media persons after the weekly State Cabinet meeting, State Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said “As we assured the farmer leaders on Sunday, we are issuing a Government resolution on Tuesday requesting the banks to grant fresh loans to the tune of Rs10,000 to each of the farmers for purchasing seeds, manure and pesticides for the Kharif season. We will ask the banks not to take farmers’ NAPs into account while disbursing Rs10,000 each to the them. All the same, the interim loans to be given to farmers would be adjusted against the new loans to be disbursed by banks after the farm loan waiver which is to take some more time”.
Immediately after the State Government’s decision to extend an interim loan of Rs10,000 to each of the farmers, the ruling Shiv Sena and BJP began to claim credit for the interim financial assistance move.
Senior Shiv Sena Minister Diwakar Raote, who was also a member of a high-power group of Ministers appointed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to hold talks with agitating farmer leaders, went to town saying “At Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, I made a strong case that farmers be given an immediate financial assistance of Rs10,000 each pending the farm loan waiver and fresh loans, to purchase seeds, manure and pesticides. The Chief Minister readily agreed to my demand”.
However, Revenue Minister Patil reiterated later in the evening “At a news conference held after the first round of talks with the farmer leaders on Sunday, I had stated clearly that the State Government would extend financial assistance to the small land-holding farmers for sowing during the forthcoming Kharif season. At the State Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, I reminded and the Chief Minister readily agreed to implement my suggestion”.
It may be recalled that on Sunday, the Maharashtra Government had decided in principle to waive loans of all farmers as a whole and announced that the loans taken by small land holders were being waived with immediate effect, thus prompting the farmers to call off their 11-day-old agitation.
The Maharashtra Government announced its in-principle decision to waive the loans of all farmers as a whole, as against the waiver of loans taken by mere small-land holders by October 31 that it had announced earlier. Through its decision to waive the loans of all the small land-holders with immediate effect, the State Government had prepared the ground for small farmers to take fresh loans from banks.
The State Government’s “in-principle” farm loan waiver announcement had come after the first round of talks that the high-power group of Ministers had with the agitating farmer leaders on their various demands.
The Maharashtra Government faces a major financial challenge in implementing its farm loan waiver decision, given that it will have to provide Rs1.14 lakh crore to write off the entire loan burden of all 1.36 crore farmers in Maharashtra. The financial hurdle faced by the Government should be seen in the light of the fact that the State’s debt stock has mounted to a staggering Rs3,56,213 crore by the end of 2016-17.
The burden arising out of loan waiver for 31 lakh small and marginal farmers, which the State Government had announced earlier, will itself works out to Rs30,000 crore. In addition, the State Government on Sunday announced a blanket loan waiver for all the farmers. This in essence, means that the State Government will have to contend with huge financial burden during 2017-18 — during which it expects revenue receipts of Rs2,43,737 crore as against the anticipated revenue expenditure of Rs2,48,248 crore.