Moratorium on farm loans valid till Dec 31: Min

Thiruvananthapuram: Agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar on Thursday sought to allay the fears regarding the validity of moratorium on repayment of loans taken by farmers in the state. Refuting the rumours, the minister said the Reserve Bank of India hasn’t said no to the extension of moratorium which the state-level bankers’ committee (SLBC) had committed to grant following the government request.
The RBI has only denied permission to extent the date for rescheduling/restricting the farmers’ loans beyond December 31. “The moratorium, which the government has earlier announced for all kinds of loans taken by farmers, still remains valid till July 31. The RBI has said that SLBC can themselves take a call on extending moratorium validity. Following the government request, SLBC had already agreed to extend the validity of moratorium on repayment of farmers’ loans till December 31,” Sunil Kumar said.
The minister was responding to a submission by opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, seeking clarification on validity of moratorium on loans availed by farmers.
The minister, however, said the government would clarify its stand regarding revenue recovery proceedings banks initiate by invoking provisions in Sarfaesi Act. “Banks in Kerala consider only paddy land as agriculture land. But, the Supreme Court has ruled that all arable land where farmers carry out agriculture activities should be considered as agriculture land. Hence, banks here cannot attach any agriculture land. The government has also decided not to cooperate with any recovery proceedings that banks try to initiate against farmers during the moratorium period,” he said.