Banks worry over waiver scheme, may lose `100 cr

With Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao declaring that the government has completed the farmer crop loan waiver scheme, banks are worried about the recovery of about `100 crore.

On the request of the government and according to RBI guidelines, the State-Level Bankers Committee had taken a decision to convert the crop loans taken by farmers in Adilabad, Medak and Ranga Reddy districts as term loans. This was done in view of natural disasters affecting farmers in these districts.

The government had assured the bankers that these rescheduled loans would taken under the crop loan waiver scheme.

Accordingly the bankers rescheduled the crop loans as term loans in these three districts. However, these loans were not covered the waiver scheme as assured.

The bankers said that farmers were refusing to repay these loans claiming that they were under the waiver scheme.

In Medak district, about `45 crore loans of more than 10,000 farmers were converted into term loans, the rest coming from the other two districts.

In the latest SLBC meeting, bankers requested the government to take a sympathetic view and cover these term under the waiver scheme.

Asked about this, a finance department official said that once the Chief Minister had announced the closure of loan waiver, they would not be able to repay bankers.