Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy announces Rs 34,000 crore farm loan waiver scheme
HD Kumaraswamy
He added that for the farmers who had paid the loan amount within time, the government will either credit the loan amount or Rs 25,000 whichever is less
Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday waived farmer's loan amounting to Rs 34,000 crore in the state.
While addressing thegovernment's first budget at Vidhana Soudha, he said,"I have decided to waive all defaulted crop loans of farmers up to Dec 31, 2017, in the first stage".
Kumaraswamy said that Rs 6500 crore was reserved in the 2018-19 budget for "waiving the arrears from the defaulting account".
He further said that the government will take action to facilitate the farmers' to avail new loans.
He added that for the farmers who had paid the loan amount within time, the government will either credit the loan amount or Rs 25,000 whichever is less.
He said, "Due to this crop loan waiver scheme, farmers will get the benefit of Rs 34,000 crore. Farmers who repaid the loan within time, as an encouragement to the non-defaulting farmers, I have decided to credit the repaid loan amount or Rs 25000 whichever is less".
He said that he willlimit the loan amount to Rs 2 lakhs, as it was "not right" to waiver higher value crop loan.
He also further proposed on increasing the petrol prices from the present 30% to 32% and diesel from 19% to 21%, so petrol price will be increased by Rs.1.14/litreand diesel by Rs 1.12/litre.
He also proposed a hike in the additional excise duty on Indian-made liquor by 4 per cent across the board on all 18 slabs.
(With inputs from Agencies)