No interest on repayment scheme accounts post July 31, 2017

Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today directed all banks not to charge any interest on the loan waiver or loan accounts sanctioned under the one-time repayment scheme after July 31, 2017. The chief minister took a detailed review through video conferencing of the process of the disbursal benefits to farmers with representatives of many nationalised banks, district cooperative central (DCC) banks and district authorities, according to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

During the review, Fadnavis directed that the disbursal of the loan waiver amount to farmers under a state government scheme should be completed by February 15. The decision to not charge any interest was taken at the State-level Bbankers' Committee (SLBC) meeting. "..Still some banks are found to be charging interest on loan accounts after July 2017.

Banks should immediately stop charging interest, failing which they will have to face the music," he said. Under the loan waiver scheme, Rs 12,300 crore have been credited to 31.32 lakh loan accounts. Still there are some unmatched accounts where the information given by the farmers and the one available with the banks do not tally.

"The information of such farmers is sent to banks concerned. Out of 21.65 lakh accounts, banks have uploaded information of 13.35 lakh accounts. All the district banks, nationalised banks and commercial banks should upload this pending information within three days on their respective portals," he said. The CM directed the banks as well as taluka level committees to speed up the process and complete the work with zero error.

The meeting was attended by MLA Anil Bonde, Chief Secretary Sumit Mallik, Additional Chief Secretary in CMO Pravin Singh Pardeshi, Additional Principal Secretary, Cooperative, S S Sandhu, all senior officers of nationalised banks and other officials. Cooperative Minister Subhash Deshmukh joined the video conferencing from Solapur. "Banks should implement special campaign to encourage farmers to take benefit of the one time settlement (OTS) scheme to pay the remaining amount of loan so that they could be given the benefit of loan waiver upto Rs 1.5 lakh," the CM said.

Fadnavis also said the disbursal of the amount should be completed in the next three days in cases where the account data is clear and matched with records. He said the process need to speed up in the case of unmatched accounts and must be completed by February 15. "A clear circular be issued at the branch level conveying them (banks) not to charge any interest on the loan amount for this disbursal span period as agreed by all the banks in SLBC meeting," the CMO said in a tweet.

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