CCL re-validated, farmers’ wait for payment may end soon

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 4

The state government today claimed to have “succeeded” in getting its cash credit limit (CCL) of Rs 17,523 crore re-validated from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) till May 31, even as farmers across the state wait to get paid for the wheat they have sold to the state government’s procurement agencies.

Though this CCL was approved by the RBI on April 21, the consortium of 60-odd banks said they did not have enough money for this provisioning and because of the mismatch in the accounts of the state government, they would have to take approval from their board of directors before releasing the money.

As most of the banks were unable to take approvals on time (before April 30), the validity of the CCL expired.

As a result, till now, just Rs 5,938 crore has been paid to commission agents. Official sources say another amount of Rs 5,100 crore — which was sanctioned by a bank on April 30, could not be used on the same day and its validity expired — will now be credited to the commission agents for onward distribution to farmers by tomorrow.

While Rs 3,248 crore was credited and disbursed to commission agents this evening, another Rs 1,032 crore is expected to be released tomorrow. “We are expecting that the other banks too will get approvals from their boards and disburse the remaining Rs 6,000 crore soon,” said a senior official.

With the wheat procurement season waning and the state already having procured 103 lakh MTof wheat, poor handling of CCL has led to farmers getting barely 30-40 per cent of the amount — till now — due to them. With payments not being made on time, farmers, especially those taking non-institutional loans (from arhtiyas), will also have to bear an additional month’s interest.

Surjit Singh Mann of Salodi Singha village, who had brought 340 quintals of wheat to Khanna mandi on April 6, said he has got just Rs 50,000 against the due amount of Rs 5.3 lakh.

“As I have not received the entire amount, the admission of my son has been delayed. A social function in the family too has been postponed. We have not seen a situation like this in 25 years,” he said.

Another farmer, Nishan Singh of Vadeenpur, said of the Rs 6.2 lakh due to him, he has got just Rs 45,000. “First, farmers work day and night to produce wheat and now, we are forced to make rounds of commission agents to take our rightful payment,” he said.

Harbans Singh Rosha, former president of Khanna market committee, admitted that in Khanna — the largest grain market — of the 21 lakh bags procured so far, payments for just 6 lakh bags had been made.

Sources in the farm credit business say the total farm credit extended to farmers in Punjab by banks is around Rs 70,000 crore and by non-institutional sources (arhtiyas) is around Rs 35,000 crore.