Agricultural loan outstanding at Rs 12.6 lakh crore as of September 2016

Agricultural loan outstanding at Rs 12.6 lakh crore as of September 2016

NEW DELHI: Agricultural loan outstanding as of September 30, 2016, stood at a whopping Rs 12.6 lakh crore, the government today said while ruling out any waiver as RBI is of the view that any such act will impact credit recovery.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said: “The total agricultural loan outstanding as on September 30, 2016, stood at Rs 12,60,26,450.46 lakh (Rs 12.60 lakh crore)”.
The agricultural loan outstanding stood at Rs 1.45 lakh crore with regional rural banks, Rs 1.57 lakh crore at cooperative banks and Rs 9.57 lakh crore at commercial banks, according to data.

Out of the total farm loan outstanding, crop loan was Rs 7.75 lakh crore and term loan Rs 4.84 lakh crore.
Asked whether the government will consider repaying loans taken by farmers through Kisan Kalyan Kosh, Rupala said: “There is no such proposal under consideration at the moment.”

“On the issue of waiver of farmers’ loan, the Reserve Bank of India is of the view that such waivers negatively impact credit and recovery climate and has severe systemic consequences,” the minister said.
The government has taken several measures to provide institutional loans to farmers at interest subvention and in a hassle-free manner, he added.

In this year’s budget, the government had announced a Krishi Kalyan Cess of 0.5 per cent on all taxable services effective June 1 this year to fund farm initiatives.
 

SOURCE: ECONOMIC TIMES