Following the demand of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to broaden the loan waiver scheme, the government on Tuesday assured that all suggestions such as raising the land ceiling limit for the waiver will be considered.
"All suggestions received regarding the debt waiver and debt relief scheme for farmers, announced in the Union Budget 2008-09, shall be appropriately considered while finalising the scheme, which is under process," Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal told Rajya Sabha.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had, in Budget 2008-09, announced a loan waiver scheme for the farmers amounting to Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion).
Congress MP Mohsina Kidwai wanted to know whether the government would raise the land ceiling for the waiver to farmers from the existing limit (of five acres), and whether it would come out with a suitable package for the farmers to pay off the loans taken from money lenders and private banks.
In his written reply, Bansal said the loan waiver scheme would also cover all agricultural loans disbursed by private scheduled commercial banks as well.
Under the proposed loan waiver and debt relief scheme, the government had announced it would waive off all agricultural loans taken from banks by farmers with a land holding of up to 5 acres.
The scheme is expected to benefit three crore small and marginal farmers apart from another one crore farmers who would be able to avail the relief under one-time settlement scheme.
