Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday that states that are keen on waiving loans on farmers "must generate funds from their own resources." The comment comes after the Maharashtra government announced that it would waive the entire loan burden on farmers across the state.
The Maharashtra government will have to provide approximately Rs 1.14 lakh crore to waive the loans of a total of 1.36 crore farmers in the state. Out of the Rs 1.14 lakh crore, around Rs 30,000 crore would be needed to waive the loans of small and marginal farmers.
On April 4, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, soon after coming to power, had also announced that his government would waive farmer loans to the tune of Rs 36,000 crore. After Adityanath's announcement, similar demands were made by farmers in several states including Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.
Jaitley made that comment while meeting the heads of public sector banks to take stock of the finances and also to discuss the issue of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). "NPA resolution, finances of banks, review of financial inclusion discussed with heads of public banks," Jaitley was quoted as saying by PTI.
Public sector banks made a "stable operating profit" of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2016-17 and a net profit at Rs 574 crore after provisioning. "Speedy resolution for pending NPA cases required," Jaitley added.
