Joining the list of other states, Karnataka too announced a waiver of farm loans for 22 lakh farmers in the state. This move has come after the likes of UP, Maharashtra and Punjab. The exact number of farmers to be benefited with this news are 22,27,506. This move will cost ₹8,165 crores to the Karnataka government.
The government has planned to waive off the loans which were taken by the farmers from cooperative banks focusing on agriculture and farm loans. The maximum waived off amount is ₹50,000 for the farmers.
Earlier this month, there were rumours that Karnataka government might follow the footsteps of other governments to announce the waive off.
Speaking in the Karnataka Assembly, chief minister Siddaramaiah stated that the government would waive off ₹50,000 worth of loan for every farmer. The waive off will be irrespective of the loan amount taken by the farmers from the banks. With this, the chief minister also announced that Karnataka has become the first state to directly send the input-credit to the bank account of farmers after the GST rollout.