Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Monday said that his government will implement schemes to waive farm loans and gold loans only after they rectify malpractices, which they have found running to the tune of several crore rupees in these schemes.
“Though we intend to implement these schemes, there are several irregularities,” said Stalin. “Even when we made calculations for waving farmers’ loans, irregularities run up to several crores. This will be rolled out after the system is rectified.”
It was a heated discussion between the DMK and opposition AIADMK during the first day of the debate in the Assembly on the revised budget that was presented last week by finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan. Former AIADMK minister R B Udhayakumar accused the DMK of tabling the white paper on the state’s finances ahead of the budget only to wriggle out of its election promises. Stalin assured that the three-month-old DMK government will not back on its election promises and went on a counter-attack blaming the AIADMK for not implementing several of its election promises, such as offering free mobile phones, wifi in public places, Amma mineral water and subsidised ration. “It’s a huge list. But concerning waiving farm loans and gold loans, the cooperation minister I Periyasamy would submit the irregularities in these schemes with evidence during his reply to the debate on the demand for grants in his department,” Stalin said.
After the assembly session speaking to HT, Udhayakumar said that they didn’t get into the issue of farm and jewellery loans. “It’s the new government’s opinion (that there are irregularities) and let them do what they have to (by conducting an enquiry). We cannot stop them,” he said. “All we are saying is that they have to prioritise social security schemes the way we did even when the state’s finances were tight. The white paper has not brought out any new information. But they are using it as a reason to delay implementing the schemes. Did they say before elections that they will identify those eligible for the scheme and then implement? Why are they taking a difference stance now? And they haven’t said anything about the criteria for eligibility.”
{{/usCountry}}After the assembly session speaking to HT, Udhayakumar said that they didn’t get into the issue of farm and jewellery loans. “It’s the new government’s opinion (that there are irregularities) and let them do what they have to (by conducting an enquiry). We cannot stop them,” he said. “All we are saying is that they have to prioritise social security schemes the way we did even when the state’s finances were tight. The white paper has not brought out any new information. But they are using it as a reason to delay implementing the schemes. Did they say before elections that they will identify those eligible for the scheme and then implement? Why are they taking a difference stance now? And they haven’t said anything about the criteria for eligibility.”
{{/usCountry}}The previous AIADMK regime in February, close on the heels of the model code of conduct coming into effect, had announced a crop loan waiver taken by 1.643 million farmers from cooperative banks. “That government left us with the onerous legacy of meeting the cost of the scheme estimated at ₹12,110.74 crores,” Rajan had said while presenting the Revised Budget Estimates 2021-22 on August 13 and allocated a provision of ₹4,803.95 crores.
The irregularities that Rajan listed were: a large number of loans were disbursed just before the announcement of the scheme, violations at the individual beneficiary level, including disbursal of loans without crop details as per the Adangal. At the cooperative society level, some societies have disbursed loans without obtaining sanctions or without the release of cash credit from the District Co-operative Credit Banks. “In some cases, societies retained loan collections and disbursed them again, which amounts to ever-greening of the portfolio,” he said. In the case of agricultural jewel loans to the DMK says that it was found that jewels were not valued properly and were short in weight or poor in quality. “Writing off such loans amounts to rewarding wrongdoers,” Rajan had said. He added that a preliminary assessment shows that it is a similar case regarding jewel loans and they want to enquire so that only the truly eligible beneficiaries are benefitted.
Besides, the malpractices in the system, the revised budget had indicated that welfare schemes and subsidies will be provided only after identifying true beneficiaries by taking up a data collation exercise to understand the true economic status of all the households. The white paper had stated that the state will have to reorient to targeted subsidies so that it goes only to the poor for whom it was intended to control overspending. The subsidies, which accounted for 12.6% in 2006, have currently risen to 27% of the state’s total revenue expenditure.