In an election year, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has offered an attractive zero per cent loans of up to Rs 3 lakh for farmers and extended direct income support of Rs 5,000 per hectare for those in dryland regions.
“Loans of up to Rs 3 lakh and zero interest is being provided for the first time in the country. In addition to this, loans of Rs 3-10 lakh is being provided at an interest rate of three per cent,” said Siddaramaiah.
The Budget proposes waiving off a full interest of amount of Rs 124.70 crore with respect to farm loans overdue as of September 30, 2015 and for those who have paid the principal amount within March 31, 2017. “In the last four years, an interest amount of Rs 2,359 crore of 10.7 lakh farmers have been waived off,” he said.
On June 20, 2017, the government had waived cooperative loans of up to Rs 50,000 of farmers. With this, a loan amount totaling Rs 8,165 crore of 22.27 lakh farmers has been waived.
“Agriculture is the priority sector of our government. In each of my Budgets, I have been giving a big share of the State’s income to agriculture.
“This can be seen on reviewing of my previous Budget too. I had allocated around Rs 40,000 crore in the last Budget for the development of farmers.”