THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(SHRI NAMO NARAIN MEENA)
(a)to(d): The Government of India implemented Agricultural Debt Waiver and
Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008 which aimed at de-clogging the lines of credit
that were clogged due to the debt burden on the farmers and to entitle these
farmers for fresh credit. All agricultural loans disbursed by Public Sector
Banks, Private Sector Banks, Cooperative Banks, Local Area Banks and Regional
Rural Banks between 01 April 1997 to 31 March 2007 to farmers, overdue as on
31 December 2007 and remaining unpaid upto 28 February 2008 were eligible for
Debt Waiver/Debt Relief. The Debt Waiver portion of the Scheme was closed on
30.6.2008. The Debt Relief portion of the Scheme was closed on 30.6.2010.
The Government of India has also announced Coffee Debt Relief Package - 2010
for the debt ridden small coffee growers with a total financial implication
of Rs.241.33 crore. The Government of India has taken several measures for
the availability of credit to farmers through banks. These include:
(i) The Interest Subvention Scheme is being implemented by the Government of
India since 2006-07 to make short-term crop loans upto Rs. 3 lakh for a period
of one year available to farmers at the interest rate of 7 percent per annum.
The Government of India has since 2009-10 been providing additional interest
subvention to prompt payees farmers, i.e., those who repay their loan in time.
The additional subvention was 1% in 2009-10 and 2% in 2010-11. This is being
increased to 3% in 2011-12. So far 2.9 crore farmers have been provided debt
waiver & debt relief to the extent of Rs. 52,898.93 crore under the Scheme.
(ii) To extend the reach of banking facilities to the rural hinterland,
banks have indentified approximately 73,000 villages with population of
more than 2000 to provide banking facilities by March, 2012. As per reports
received from State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) Convener Banks, over
45,000 such villages have been covered.
(iii) General permission has been granted to domestic Scheduled Commercial
Banks (other than RRBs) to open branches/mobile branches/Administrative Offices/CPCs
(Service Branches), (i) in Tier 3 to Tier 6 centres (with population upto 49,999)
and (ii) in rural, semi urban and urban centres of the North-Eastern States and Sikkim,
subject to reporting. RBI has advised banks that while preparing their Annual Branch
Expansion Plan (ABEP), the Banks should allocate at least 25 percent of the total
number of branches proposed to be opened during a year in unbanked rural (Tier 5
and tier 6) centres.
