E-Paper
Telangana government announces waiver of all farm loans up to ₹1 lakh
The loan waiver is estimated to cost the exchequer ₹24,738 crore
The Telangana government on Sunday announced waiver of all outstanding crop loans of farmers up to ₹1 lakh, starting this month, in four installments.
State finance minister T Harish Rao, who presented the annual budget of the state for 2020-21, said an amount of ₹1,198 crore would be released immediately to waive off outstanding crop loans of below ₹25,000 belonging to 5.83 lakh farmers at one go.
“The amount would be distributed to each farmer individually in the form of cheques through their respective local legislators,” he said.
The waiver of loans above ₹25,000 and up to ₹1 lakh per farmer requires an amount of ₹24,738 crore. “This loan waiver will be done in four installments and amount of ₹6,225 crore was earmarked in the budget towards crop loan waiver scheme,” Rao said.
The finance minister proposed the annual budget with an outlay of ₹1,82,914 crore, with a revenue surplus of ₹4,482 crore. The budget projects a revenue expenditure of ₹1,38,669 crore and capital expenditure of ₹22,061 crore.
Rao said the overall economic slowdown across the country in the last one and a half years resulted in reduction in tax devolution and other transfers to the state by the Centre and decline in the growth of state’s own revenues. The tax devolution from Centre to Telangana is expected to decline by ₹3,731 crore this year. The growth of the state’s own revenues in 2019-20 till the end of February is estimated to be at 6.3%, much below the growth of 16.1% achieved in 2018-19, he said.
Following the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, there will be a reduction in the share of Telangana in Central tax devolution by an amount of ₹2,384 crore in 2020-21, he pointed out.
The minister said the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) registered a growth of 12.6% over the previous year’s figure of 14.3%, due to economic slowdown. “Yet, the decline is much lower than the national GDP growth which came down from 11.2% to 7.5%,” he said.
He said the agriculture and allied sectors recorded an impressive growth of 23.7% and 17.3% respectively in 2019-20. The services sector is estimated to grow at 14.1 per cent in 2019-20, he said.
Stating that the state government’s flagship programme Rythu Bandhu had become a role model for the Centre which introduced PM-KISAN scheme and also to other states which introduced similar schemes, Rao said an amount of ₹14,000 crore had been allocated to this scheme for 2020-21, as against ₹12,000 crore last year.
The other major allocations made by the Telangana government in this year’s budget are: ₹11,054 crore for irrigation sector to complete ongoing irrigation projects, ₹1,141 crore for Rythu Bima (insurance to farmers who die in distress) and ₹1,000 crore towards market intervention fund to ensure remunerative price for farmers.
An amount of ₹11,758 crore was allocated for pensions to various beneficiaries, ₹16,535 crore for SC Special Development Fund, ₹9,771 crore for ST Special Development Fund, ₹1,518 crore for minorities’ welfare, ₹4,356 crore for OBC welfare and ₹1,200 crore towards interest-free loans to self-help women groups.
A sum of ₹23,005 crore was earmarked for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development and ₹14,809 crore for municipal administration and urban development, ₹10,000 crore for various urban development projects Hyderabad, ₹10,421 crore for school education, ₹1,723 crore for higher education, ₹6,186 crore for health, ₹10,416 crore for power, ₹11,917 crore for housing and ₹3,494 crore for roads and buildings, ₹5,852 crore for police department.
