One lakh farmers of Punjab have received the highest loan waiver—an average of Rs 1 lakh each—on account of the state government's order of October 17, 2017.
Parshottam Rupala, minister of state for agriculture and farmers' welfare, tabled a list of some state-wise farm loans waived off in the recent past, from which the average of loans waived to farmers in different states have been worked out.
Thirty one lakh farmers of Maharashtra, who received an average waiver of Rs 98,387 each on account of a state government order of April 2017, came second in the list. This includes the NPAs that some banks had run up on account of loans given to small and marginal farmers of the state.
Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, soon after assuming office, waived the highest quantum of loans totalling Rs 36,369 crores. The document tabled however, does not mention the number of beneficiaries.
Rupala's statement, counting the loan waiver schemes of the Union Territory of Puducherry and the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, does not mention any figure of amount waived, or the number of farmers who benefitted.
The minister told the Lok Sabha that the Centre was not considering any loan waiver as it would incentivise the defaulters, and even those who are in a position to repay the loan would not do so. The government had also decided not to announce a loan waiver as it would set a precedent that will be difficult to reject in the future.
According to the tabled list, Tamil Nadu's 12,02,075 farmers' loans totalling Rs 5318.75 crores were waived in April-May 2016, giving each of the farmers a benefit of about Rs 44,446 .
In Karnataka, 22 lakh farmers' loans totalling Rs 8165 crores were waived by a state order in June 2017, with a loan waiver benefit of Rs 37,114 per farmer.
In the state of Jammu and Kashmir, a January 2017 order saw 1.15 lakh farmers' loans totalling Rs 244 crores getting waived. Each famer on an average is benefitted by a waiver of Rs 21,217.
At least on paper, it seems that 1,89,379 farmers of Chattisgarh got the minimum loan waiver, an average of Rs 6852 each.