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Waiver of farm loans marks Telangana budget
The Telangana government on Sunday announced waiver of all outstanding crop loans of up to Rs 1 lakh in four instalments, which will come into effect from this month.
The Telangana government on Sunday announced waiver of all outstanding crop loans of up to Rs 1 lakh in four instalments, which will come into effect from this month..
State finance minister T Harish Rao, who presented the annual budget for 2020-21, said an amount of Rs 1,198 crore would be released immediately to waive off outstanding crop loans of below Rs 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 Rs 25,000 and up to Rs 1 lakh per farmer requires Rs 24,738 crore. “This will be done in four instalments and Rs 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 Rs 1,82,914 crore, with a revenue surplus of Rs 4,482 crore.
Rao said the economic slowdown in India in the last one and a half years resulted in reduction in tax devolution and other transfers to the state by the Centre and also caused a decline in the growth of state’s own revenues.
