Farmers in the State are faced with a financial crisis and the moratorium on loan repayment announced by the Centre has not helped them, said P.R.Pandian, President, Coordination Committee of All Farmers Associations of Tamil Nadu.
Addressing the media here on Monday, Mr. Pandian pointed out that in view of the financial crisis that had cropped up due to the pandemic, the Union government had announced a moratorium of another three months from May 31 for the farmers to repay their loans.
‘Foul game’
But the Union government had played a foul game by issuing a GO instructing the financial institutions to calculate and collect interest for the moratorium period from the borrowers, he alleged.
Nationalised banks and cooperative banks had started levying interest for interest-free loans also and had begun collecting the interest from the borrowers.
While the Central government had announced that additional credit to the tune of ₹30,000 crore would be pumped in through National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, the cooperative banks should waive all outstanding loans and stop collecting the interest for the moratorium period.
‘Non-performing assets’
If the waiver was not possible, the Tamil Nadu government should ensure that the cooperative banks declared the outstanding loans as non-performing assets and disburse fresh loans to the farmers, Mr. Pandian urged.
Drawing the attention of the government to the appalling financial condition of the cane cultivators who supplied sugarcane to Arignar Anna Sugar Mill at Kurunkulam in Thanjavur district, Mr. Pandian said the mill had not disbursed the amount due for the farmers for the year 2019-20 and, hence, the cane cultivators were unable to repay the loan taken by them for raising the crop.
As a result, they were unable to avail fresh loans and were reeling under a severe financial crunch, he claimed.
Alleging that agricultural operations in the State was all set to get affected as the COVID-19 virus had started spreading in villages in view of the relaxations of lockdown conditions, Mr. Pandian urged the State government to step up coronavirus tests in all districts.