New Delhi: More than half the households engaged in farming are in debt with an average loan burden of Rs 47,000, Parliament was informed on Friday.
"About 52 per cent of the agricultural households in the country were estimated to be indebted and the estimated average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household ...Was Rs 47,000", Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
He was quoting an NSSO survey on agricultural households for reference period July 2012 to June 2013.
Sinha said that to reduce the debt burden of farmers and increase availability of institutional credit to them, the government has taken several "major steps".
These include, he said, interest subvention since 2006-07, banks have been advised to waive margi/security requirements of agricultural loans up to Rs 1 lakh, and simplification of KCC (Kisan Credit Card).
In view of the recent unseasonal rains and hailstorms in several parts of the country, government has issued advisory to all State Level Bankers' Committees to take immediate steps to mitigate the hardship of farmers in accordance with guidelines, Sinha added.
Meanwhile, replying to a question, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the total outstanding gross bank credit of public sector banks stood at Rs 46.5 lakh crore as on March 20, 2015.
The outstanding loans to agriculture and allied activities stood at Rs 6.48 lakh crore and Rs 10.07 lakh crore to the services sector.
The outstanding loan to industry (micro and small, medium and large) was Rs 21.32 lakh crore while it was Rs 4.3 lakh crore to the housing segment (including priority sector housing).
