The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Loan to farmers at 3 p.c. interest to be announced in budget

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Thursday, Jul 03, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Loan to farmers at 3 p.c. interest to be announced in budget

Special Correspondent

Date of implementation of scheme to be announced soon

Rs. 3,500 crore given to farmers as loan at 4 per cent interest
State Government owes Rs. 390 crore to cooperative institutions

Bangalore: Cooperative loans to farmers in the State at 3 per cent interest will be announced in the budget to be presented by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who also holds the Finance portfolio, and with it the demand for loans would be increased by Rs. 1,000 crore for the year 2008-09. The Bharatiya Janata Party had made this promise in its manifesto during the Assembly elections.

Disclosing this to presspersons, Cooperation Minister Lakshman Savadi said the exact date from which the farmers would get the benefit of availing themselves of the loan would be decided shortly.

He said that farmers had been given a total loan of Rs. 3,500 crore at 4 per cent under the old scheme.

Mr. Savadi said the State Government owed Rs. 390 crore to cooperative institutions such as the district cooperative banks and it included the difference of interest from 6 per cent to 4 per cent and the loan and interest waived by the Janata Dal (Secular)-BJP coalition government.

When his attention was drawn to reports that the cooperative banks and societies had started issuing notices to the farmers demanding repayment of arrears and if any follow-up action would be taken to recover the loan forcibly from them, Mr. Savadi ruled out any such measure and said that issuing notices was part of the procedure in every institution which extended loans.

Asked whether he would issue directions to postpone recovery of loans, as some districts had not received sufficient rain, the Minister said that the situation did not warrant it.

However, the Government would take a decision depending upon the exigencies, he said.

Defending the memorandum submitted by the Chief Minister to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for extending the Centre’s loan waiver scheme to Karnataka farmers, Mr. Savadi said that if the State Government got Rs.1,800 crore from it, the farmers would be provided with more loans.

He said that small farmers had been benefited when Mr. Yeddyurappa waived loan and interest.

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