Coming before the Budget: easy loans for farmers

Farmers may not have to wait for the budget to find out how or whether they can get loans. Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that the ...

Farmers may not have to wait for the budget to find out how or whether they can get loans. Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that the government is preparing to unveil easy loans to farmers in time for the next sowing season just after the monsoons which otherwise would have been too soon for budget announcements to be implemented.

In an interview to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on Walk the Talk NDTV 24×7, P Chidambaram said: ‘‘You don’t have to wait till the budget…We want to tell them—here is a Government that is a friend of the farmer..we will give you credit…you get out of the money-lenders’ clutches…sow if you have to sow, plough if you have to plough, invest in a pump, well, get on with the job.’’

Farmers are topmost on his mind, the manufacturing sector comes a close second followed by drinking water and basic health and education for all. ‘‘(The) Left wants and I want a greater emphasis on agriculture so that the occupation in which 70% of our population is dependent on gets a boost,’’ he said.

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When asked if it was right for governments to dole out subsidies to the poor instead of making any effort to drag them from below the poverty line, he said: ‘‘They (the poor) do not want doles, he wants drinking water. Now I will find a way in which drinking water is taken as a mission…We have to go into a mission mode…57 years after Independence we cannot tell him that there is no water.’’

Where does the money come from for all this? ‘‘The money is there…it is the wrong use of money that is hurting us,’’ said.

On the balancing act with the Left’s discomfort with reforms and the impact it will have on investors looking for signs of continuity, he said: ‘‘No one wants a rollback, what Left want is that you go forward but take (the) section of people who have been neglected or ignored.’’

He said there was a constant running through India’s reform over the last 13 years and the change this time ‘‘is that you have to factor in the 20-25% people completely left out the reform process. We have to address these concerns at the same time without change.’’

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Further clarifying the Left’s position, he said what they mean is don’t put too high a burden on those who can’t bear the burden. ‘‘…this is where one has to introduce the doctrine of proportionality.’’ He also said that he believed in efficient taxation rather than high taxes.

When asked about Andhra Pradesh announcing free power for farmers, an example that has been followed by Tamil Nadu, he said: ‘‘Perhaps the Andhra Pradesh decision was a reaction to an extreme situation.’’ Expressing full faith in the democratic process, he said that the books have to balance in the end.

He was also optimistic on the labour front saying ‘‘trade Unions have evolved over the years.’’ The number of workdays lost as a result of strikes had already come down sharply, he said.