Stop harassing farmers to repay loans, govt tells banks

The Finance Department headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has shot off a missive to banks, asking them to stop “harassing” and “pressuring” farmers to repay their loans.

Apparently, banks are hounding farmers to repay loans that were to be taken care of by the government under the Crop Loan Waiver Scheme (CLWS) of 2018, which the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition implemented.

“Many farmers are complaining that they are being pressurised by the banks to repay the crop loans which are eligible under the CLWS,” Finance Secretary (Fiscal Reforms) Manju Prasannan Pillai stated in a letter to the State Level Bankers’ Committee, a copy of which is with DH.

Pillai stated that the chief minister’s office (CMO) had received many complaints against banks on “harassment of farmers for repayment of the agricultural loans.”

One such complaint reached Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, who forwarded it to the CMO. “Farmers in my constituency (Thirthahalli) have not repaid their loans as they were waived by the government. However, banks are pressuring farmers to pay, saying they have not received the waiver money from the government,” Jnanendra stated.

The 2018 CLWS covered loans between April 2009 and December 2017. It involved crediting Rs 25,000 into the regular loan accounts and up to Rs 2 lakh in all other loan accounts, including non-performing assets (NPAs).

According to the Finance Department, Rs 7,669 crore has been credited to 9.83 lakh loan accounts in commercial banks. The cases of 10,982 farmers yet to be covered are under process for
payment.

“All eligible farmers have been paid. If there are eligible farmers who haven’t been covered, they can submit their Aadhaar, ration card and survey numbers. Farmers can check their status on the CLWS portal where bank-wise waiver data is available,” CLWS Cell head Munish Moudgil said.

According to farmer leader Kuruburu Shantkumar, at least 25-30% farmers have not received the waiver. The scheme was designed in such a way that farmers having outstanding loans in commercial banks and cooperative banks would have only their cooperative loan waived. “This, coupled with mismatches in documents, have kept many farmers out,” he said.

He also blamed banks: “Let’s say there’s a loan of Rs 2.75 lakh. Banks are asking farmers to pay Rs 75,000 in order for the waiver of the remaining Rs 2 lakh.”

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