Clearing the air on farm loan waiver, the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the Centre is not considering any proposal for farm loan waiver and it will stick to its fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2017-18. He said ‘There is no such proposal for farm loan waiver. We have got FRBM Act and fiscal deficit target, we intend adhering to it.’ He added that states that want to go in for waiver schemes will have to generate them from their own resources. Beyond that, the central government has nothing more to say.
Arun Jaitley’s statement comes at a time when states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra witnessed violent farmers' protests over support price and loan waiver. After Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, Punjab also announced a loan waiver for farmers but centre refused to do the same. Despite a bumper crop this rabi season, farmers in many states are in distress because of sharp fall in prices in both domestic and global market. Farmers in various parts of the country have been agitating, seeking higher support prices for their produce as well as waiver of loans.
In Union Budget 2017-18, the fiscal deficit has been pegged at 3.2 percent, lower than 3.5 percent in the last financial year. The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) committee, headed by former revenue secretary NK Singh, has recommended keeping budgetary deficit at 3 percent of the GDP in three years to March 2020. It also suggested progressively reducing it to 2.5 percent by 2022-23.
