By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Tuesday ruled out any fresh debt waver scheme even though farmers have been severly hit by poor monsoon this year.
“There is no such proposal,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said when asked whether the government would write off farmers’ loans.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of his meeting with heads of the regional rural banks (RRBs) here.
The government has so far declared 177 out of India’s 626 districts drought-hit.
Last year, the government announced a Rs.71,000-crore debt waiver scheme for small and medium scale farmers.
Stating that the full impact of the erratic monsoon was yet to be ascertained, Mukherjee hoped that the country would achieve growth of over 6 percent in the current fiscal.
The agriculture sector accounts to 20 percent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP).