56 Mn Farmers To Benefit From 36k Cr Loan Waiver

MUMBAI: The state cabinet has approved a loan waiver amounting to ₹36,585 crore, benefitting 5.57 million farmers across Maharashtra. Under the scheme, the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana 2026, agricultural loans of up to ₹2 lakh will be waived until September 30, 2025. In addition, an incentive of ₹50,000 will be given to farmers who regularly repay their loan instalments. Together, this will benefit 5.57 million farmers, placing a burden of ₹36,585 crore on the exchequer.

The loan waiver, first announced in the state budget earlier this year, was cleared on Tuesday.

The scheme consists of a waiver, a one-time settlement and an incentive. Loan amounts of up to ₹2 lakh will be waived, regardless of the size of the land holding. In addition, farmers who regularly repay their loan instalments will be given ₹50,000 as an incentive, according to a statement from the chief minister’s office.

Farmers who have taken loans from nationalised banks, rural banks, private banks as well as cooperative banks and cooperative credit societies will be eligible for the loan waiver. The scheme will be implemented before June 30.

Making a presentation at the cabinet meeting, Pravin Darade, principal secretary, state cooperation department, said: “The total number of beneficiary farmers for the farm loan waiver of ₹2 lakh and incentive of ₹50,000 would be 55.72 lakh. The estimated expenditure on the scheme is ₹36,585 crores.”

The last farm loan waiver scheme to be implemented was in 2020 by the MVA government. At the time, outstanding crop loans of up to ₹2 lakh from April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2019, were waived. The current waiver covers the period between April 1, 2019, and September 30, 2025.

Those who will not be eligible for the waiver are ministers from the central and state governments, current and former elected representatives, government and semi-government employees who earn more than ₹25,000 per month, income-tax payers, retired government employees whose pension exceeds ₹25,000 per month, and employees of cooperative institutes who earn more than ₹25,000 per month.

The state government had appointed a committee headed by Praveen Pardesi, CEO of the government think tank, MITRA, to estimate the number of beneficiaries and the financial burden on the taxpayer.

A separate implementation committee, headed by the state chief secretary and comprising senior officials from finance, agriculture, cooperation and information technology departments, along with the cooperation commissioner and MITRA CEO, will oversee the scheme’s rollout.

Since the code of conduct for the June 18 legislative council elections has been imposed, the state government sought the permission of the Election Commission before announcing the waiver. The commission gave the green signal as the scheme had already been announced.

To improve the state’s farm loan system, the cooperation department has been asked to set up a ‘cooperative stack’ mechanism. It will be overseen by the cooperation commissioner and the registrar of cooperative institutes, Pune.