The Maharashtra Government has expanded the scope of the loan waiver scheme by extending the benefits to every member of a farmer's family in case of a separate loan account and issued an official order to this effect, an official said on Sunday.
The State Government had said that it had spent around Rs 14,000 crore as part of the loan waiver till March this year. The Government said the scheme had so far benefited 35.32 lakh farmers in the State.
A Government resolution (GR) was issued on expanding the scope of the loan waiver scheme on August 10.
The decision had been announced in the monsoon session of the state legislature held in Nagpur this year.
Earlier, the State Government had considered the farmer's family as one unit and considered it eligible to claim waiver of Rs 1.5 lakh agricultural debt.
As per the GR, every member of the family having some agricultural debt will now be covered under the scheme, which was announced last year following strident protests by farmers.
"Every person's loan amount up to Rs 1.50 lakh will be waived. The necessary instructions are given to banks to prepare a list of such potential beneficiaries," a State Cooperation department official said here on Sunday.
As per the initial scheme, if a farmer had a loan outstanding of more than Rs 1.50 lakh, then that difference has to be paid by him before he becomes eligible for the waiver.
"As per the revised rule, the farmers who have paid some money to the bank as per the first scheme but the cumulative amount of the outstanding loan is less than the revised norms; then the banks will have to return the amount to farmers," the GR stated.
For instance, as per the earlier scheme, if a farmer family had had a cumulative loan outstanding of Rs 2 lakh and Rs 50,000 had already been paid by them, the state would bear the burden of Rs 1.50 lakh, it said.