The Hindu : Front Page : Fishermen’s loans to be written off

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Friday, Jun 20, 2008
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Fishermen’s loans to be written off

Special Correspondent

Fisheries Minister S. Sarma says the Centre has issued instructions to banks.

KOCHI: The Central government has issued instructions to banks to write off fishermen’s loans up to a maximum principal of Rs.50,000 each.

Only loans taken for purchasing work-related implements and equipment, such as boats and fishing nets, would qualify for the waiver — money borrowed from nationalised and scheduled banks as well as fishermen’s cooperative societies, Fisheries Minister S. Sarma told mediapersons on Thursday.

He said that the Centre had initially agreed to write off loans taken from nationalised and scheduled banks. But on a request from the Kerala government, NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) had recommended to the Central authorities to consider loans from fishermen’s cooperatives too and the latter had agreed in principle to waive these too, Mr. Sarma said.

He said the paperwork for the waiver would be completed by June 30. Meetings between Fisheries Department officials and fisheries cooperatives’ functionaries would be held here in the next two days to find how best the scheme could benefit the fish workers in debt. The government had estimated the total quantum of debts at Rs.424 crore.

Debt commission

Mr. Sarma said the proposed fish workers’ debt eradication commission would be constituted by end-July.

Fishermen’s loans were not initially included in the waiver scheme when Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced it in his Budget speech in Parliament. Since administratively fisheries comes under the Union Agriculture Ministry, fish workers’ unions, mainly from Kerala, and the Kerala government urged Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to write off fish workers’ loans. The Central authorities agreed to this, but, when the Reserve Bank issued guidelines to the banks, fisheries got omitted. Following this, the State Cabinet sent a request to the Central authorities stressing the need to waive fish workers’ loans. Following this, the Central authorities have now issued guidelines for the waiver of fishermen’s loan.

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