Cash transfer to farmers should be unconditional to make meaningful impact: SBI Report

23 Jan 2019 Evaluate

State Bank of India (SBI) in its latest report has said that the government should choose for the unconditional cash transfer to farmers to alleviate agrarian distress rather than Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme. The report stated that, currently, it may not be feasible to initiate Rythu Bandhu Scheme on national level as land data in several states, including Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu are yet to be digitised. It said that there have been reports saying that government is planning to provide direct cash support to the farmers in lieu of various farm level subsidies/support.

The 'Ecowrap' report highlighted that such move comes on the back of suggestions in public domain by noted agri-economists as well as Niti Aayog that perhaps Rythu Bandhu Scheme that is fiscally prohibitive to launch on a pan India level should be netted against fertiliser subsidies, interest plus and insurance support and adding that instead of this the farmers should be provided the benefit as direct cash in their account.

However, the report noted ‘We believe this argument has flaws, though a cash transfer scheme is always a better option than an UBI scheme. Many countries have found that UBI does not address the structural problems and is at best a solution in interregnum’. Besides, the report underlined, in Budget 2019-20, Government estimated Agriculture subsidy (plus support) at Rs 98,100 crore (Crop Insurance Rs 13,000 crore, Interest Subsidy Rs 15,000 crore and Fertilizer Subsidy Rs 70,100 crore).

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