Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Thursday announced a crop loan waiver scheme of Rs 34,000 crore while presenting the maiden budget of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government at the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.
The chief minister said the government would waive all defaulted crop loans of farmers till December 31, 2017 in the first stage.
For farmers who repaid the loan within the time, the repaid amount or Rs 25000, whichever is less, will be credited to their account as an encouragement to the non defaulting farmers.
Kumaraswamy said the government has decided to limit the loan amount to Rs 2 lakh.
"To facilitate the farmers to avail new loans, action will be taken by the govt to issue clearance certificate by waiving the arrears form the defaulting account. For this purpose, Rs 6,500 crore has been earmarked in the budget,” he said.
During the recent assembly polls in the state, Kumaraswamy had promised to waive farm loans borrowed both from cooperative and nationalised banks within 24 hours of coming to power. On July 1, the Congress-JD(S) coordination committee was constituted to oversee smooth functioning of the government to approve the Common Minimum Programme, which includes waiver of farm loans, creation of one crore jobs and allocation of Rs. 1.25 lakh crore for irrigation over the next five years.
The chief minister also proposed to increase the rate of tax on petrol from the present 30 per cent to 32 per cent and diesel from 19 per cent to 21 per cent. As a result, petrol price will be increased by Rs 1.14/ltr and diesel by Rs 1.12/ltr in the state.
Considering the popularity of Indira Canteens in Bengaluru, action has been taken to open 247 such canteens in all taluks and district head quarters of the state at an expenditure of Rs 211 crores, Kumaraswamy said.