Maharashtra approves farm loan waivers of up to ₹2 lakh; 5.6 million to benefit

CM Devendra Fadnavis had announced that the scheme — “Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana 2026” — would be rolled out before June 30.

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday approved a scheme to provide farm loan waivers of up to ₹2 lakh, in a move that is expected to benefit around 5.57 million farmers, and also introduced an incentive for those farmers who have repaid their loans on time.

5.6 mn farmers to benefit from ₹36k-cr loan waiver

“Farmers with farm loans would get a waiver of up to ₹2 lakh, regardless of their land holding. Those who regularly repay their loans would receive ₹50,000 as an incentive,” said a release issued by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s office. “Farmers who have taken loans from nationalised banks, rural banks, private banks as well as cooperative banks and cooperative credit societies will be eligible for the loan waiver.”

While presenting state’s budget for FY27 on March 6, Fadnavis had announced that the scheme — “Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana 2026” — would be rolled out before June 30. Farm loan waiver was one of the major pre-poll promises of the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti.

During the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Pravin Darade, principal secretary of the co-operation department, said: “The total number of beneficiary farmers for the farm loan waiver of ₹2 lakh and incentive of ₹50,000 would be 55.7 lakh (5.57 million). The estimated expenditure on the scheme is ₹36,585 crores.”

Last time, the state had witnessed a similar move in 2020 by the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which had waived off outstanding crop loans up to ₹2 lakh from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2019.

Official documents presented during the cabinet meeting also listing who all are eligible for the loan waiver. “Ministers from the Union or state government, current and former elected representatives, government-semi government employees earning more than ₹25,000 per month, income tax payers, retired government employees earning more than ₹25,000 per month from pension, and employees of co-operative institutes earning more than ₹25,000 per month would not be eligible for the farm loan waiver scheme,” according to the documents.

The state government had appointed a committee headed by Praveen Pardesi, CEO of the government think tank, MITRA, to estimate the number of beneficiaries and the financial burden on the taxpayer.

A separate implementation committee, headed by the state chief secretary and comprising senior officials from finance, agriculture, cooperation and information technology departments, along with the cooperation commissioner and MITRA CEO, will oversee the rollout of the scheme.

Since the code of conduct for the June 18 legislative council elections has been imposed, the state government sought the permission of the Election Commission before announcing the waiver. The commission gave the green signal as the scheme had already been announced.

To improve the state’s farm loan system, the cooperation department has been asked to set up a ‘cooperative stack’ mechanism. It will be overseen by the cooperation commissioner and the registrar of cooperative institutes, Pune.