Chandigarh, Sep 2 (UNI) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday announced interest and penalty waiver on crop loans worth Rs 4,750 crore taken from cooperative banks in the state. This decision taken ahead of the Assembly polls, would benefit about 10 lakh farmers in the State. Addressing a press conference on the 12th day of ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ in Bhiwani today, Mr Khattar announced to extend the last date for payment of principal amount upto November 30, 2019.
He said that it would benefit the loanee farmers of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies, District Central Cooperative Banks and Haryana Land Reforms and Development Bank. Those farmers whose bank accounts were declared Non Performing Assets (NPA) by these banks and were unable to renew their loans, would now be able to change cycle of their crop loan accounts with this announcement. He said that the farmers would have to deposit their principal amount only. This one time relief has been provided to the farmers to dispose off their interest and penalty, he added.
Mr Khattar said that about 13 lakh farmers have taken loan from Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS), out of which bank accounts of 8.25 lakh farmers have declared NPA. He said that four per cent interest on crop loans of PACS is borne by the state government and three per cent by NABARD. He said that penalty at the rate of five per cent is imposed on those farmers who do not repay the crop loan on time, which would now be completely waived off. He said that while the state government would bear four per cent amount of interest rate, out of three per cent interest rate of NABARD, 1.5 per cent each would be contributed by the state government and PACS at their own level. With this announcement, the loanee farmers of PACS would be benefited to the tune of Rs 2500 crore, he asserted.
Similarly, he said, 85,000 farmers have taken loan of Rs 3000 crore from District Central Cooperative Banks. Out of this, accounts of 32,000 farmers of Rs 800 crore have become NPA. He said that to dispose of these accounts under the one time settlement scheme, principal amount alongwith simple interest would be payable from the date when the account was declared NPA upto November 30, 2019. According to this, simple interest would be charged at the rate of two per cent for loan less than Rs five lakh, five per cent for the loan of Rs five to ten lakh and 10 per cent for loan above Rs 10 lakh. It would benefit the farmers to the tune of Rs 1800 crore.
The Chief Minister said that in the third category, there are 1.10 lakh loanee farmers of Haryana Land Reforms and Development Bank out of which accounts of 70,000 farmers have been declared NPA. The principal loan amount of these farmers is Rs 750 crore while Rs 1400 crore is payable on account of interest and penalty. He said that the entire penal interest of farmers of these banks would be waived off. They would only have to pay 50 per cent of normal interest as the remaining 50 per cent would be borne by the state government. The loanee farmers of Land Mortgage Bank would get benefit of Rs 450 crore from this scheme, he added.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed towards making the farmers more prosperous and from the last two seasons, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of crops has been announced with 50 per cent profit over and above the cost of production. He said that the procurement of paddy and wheat is made by Food Corporation of India (FCI) on behalf of the Centre Government whereas; other corps is procured by the state government through its procurement agencies on MSP. He said that the MSP of Bajra has been declared Rs 2000 per quintal.
