Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh (File Photo)
THE STATE Level Bankers Committee of Punjab Friday said the delay in rolling out the farm debt waiver to farmers having accounts in commercial banks was affecting recoveries of commercial banks and had also turned nearly 80 per cent farmers into non-performing assets (NPAs). In a meeting, the bankers told the Punjab government that not only the small and marginal farmers, who were actually getting debt relief up to Rs 2 lakh, even the big farmers were not repaying loans. The bankers said while cooperative banks were handed over the debt waiver the commercial banks were still waiting for that although they had completed the Aadhaar seeding of the loanees on April 30, a deadline set by Punjab government.
“This was not only creating problems for the commercial banks but also affecting the CIBIL scores of farmers and banks were further refusing to advance them credit. The farmers were turning to non-institutionalised moneylenders and borrowing at much higher interest. The waiver was actually creating trouble for them.”
Arun Sharma, chairman of Punjab Gramin Bank, said the state government should ask the farmers to repay their loans as they would get the refund anyway. “The government should organise a press conference to tell the farmers that they should repay the loans before the relief reaches them. Their CIBIL scores are destroyed. I did not have a single NPA in my bank.” Vini Mahajan, Additional Chief Secretary and Financial Commissioner (Revenue) while representing the Punjab government, said they would be done with the total debt waiver by the year-end. She claimed that commercial banks had not completed the Aadhaar seeding by April 30. She said the government had extended the date to May 25 now.
“The government is actually conscious of the entire situation. We are trying hard to expedite the process. Cooperative banks have concluded the tedious process of Aadhaar seeding. Commercial banks should be done with it soon. This meeting should review why the bank branches are not pushing out data and the process is getting stuck. Sometimes data is imperfect, it needs cleaning up. Hence, it should be expedited. Let us do it together. We wish to do it ASAP. Funds have been tied up,” she said.
Earlier, Rachna Dixit, regional director, RBI, Chandigarh, said the RBI is never in favour of debt waivers because environment gets vitiated. But in Punjab, farmers are in distress and the state government is in a catch-22 situation. She requested Mahajan to ensure the government completed the promised waiver.