Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay announced in the State Legislative Assembly on Monday an expanded relief package providing a 100 per cent waiver on cooperative agricultural loans of up to Rs 75,000. Delivering the statement under Rule 110, the Chief Minister also sanctioned loan waivers of up to Rs 75,000 for borrowings ranging between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1 lakh, along with a ceiling waiver of Rs 35,000 for agricultural loans exceeding Rs 1 lakh.
The expanded debt-relief package entails an additional state expenditure of Rs 953.06 crore, extending direct financial relief to more than 1.38 lakh additional farmers. With this revision, the cumulative agricultural loan waiver outlay by the state government reaches Rs 6,220 crore, benefiting a total of 13.34 lakh farmers across Tamil Nadu.
Addressing lawmakers, Vijay emphasized that agriculture remains the foundational pillar of the regional economy and that the broader prosperity of the state relies on providing robust economic security to the farming community. He noted that the decision to expand financial relief was finalized following detailed consultations with agricultural unions earlier this month, despite prevailing state budgetary pressures and regulatory requirements set by the Reserve Bank of India concerning time-bound settlement schedules with cooperative financial institutions.
The latest measure builds upon earlier phased relief rollouts initiated by the government, which initially provided loan relief of up to Rs 50,000 upon assuming office in May before progressively scaling up waiver thresholds to cover a wider demographic of small and marginal cultivators.
