With mounting demands from farmers for loan waiver, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said states will have to find funds for it from their own resources — virtually ruling out any funding from the Centre.
“I have already made the position. States which want to go for these kind of schemes, will have to generate them from their own resources. Beyond that as the central government, I have nothing to say,” Jaitley told reporters when asked if the Centre will help states on the issue of farm loan waivers.
The Finance Minister was speaking after the morning session with heads of public sector banks to discuss their festering bad loans situation.
On Sunday, Maharashtra announced writing off the loans of small and marginal farmers in the face of a 10-day strike by agriculturists demanding among other things loan waiver.
Similarly, facing an agitation Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had promised to look into the demand for waiving agricultural loans.
Soon after BJP’s stunning electoral victory in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year, the Yogi Adityanath government had announced writing off farm loans to the tune of over Rs 30,000 crore.
