The Hindu : Front Page : “Furnish list of debt relief beneficiaries by June 25”

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“Furnish list of debt relief beneficiaries by June 25”

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday directed public sector banks (PSBs) to furnish by June 25 the list of farmer beneficiaries pertaining to the farm debt relief scheme so as to ensure that the loan waiver programme, as outlined in the Budget, is completed by the month-end deadline.

In a video conference with the chiefs of various PSBs, Mr. Chidambaram said: “On June 25, we hope to get the list [of farmers].” Setting a timetable for completion of the loan waiver scheme, he said that by June 23, the banks should get themselves satisfied that the process of “inspection and superchecks” in this regard had been completed and a final list of farmers prepared.

To ensure that this is done as scheduled, Financial Services Secretary Arun Ramanathan is slated to get in touch with the chairmen of various PSBs the following day.

Clarifying some of the provisions of the revised farm loan waiver programme, Mr. Chidambaram pointed out that in the case of investment loans, the interest payable, but not serviced as on December 31, 2007, will also be included for extending debt relief to farmers.

In the case of loans provided directly to self-help groups of individual farmers, the Minister said the disaggregated data of the loan extended to each farmer could be maintained in the books of these groups, provided the banks were satisfied with that data. He also asked the PSBs to ensure that the certificates and undertakings pertaining to the debt waiver were provided to farmers in their languages.

While announcing the Rs. 60,000-crore farm loan waiver programme as a Budget package for the current fiscal, Mr. Chidambaram fixed June 30 as the deadline for providing debt relief to about 4 crore small and marginal farmers. Subsequently, to ensure that farmers in dryland areas could also avail themselves of the relief package benefits, the size of the loan waiver was raised to Rs. 71,680 crore.

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