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The government of India on Friday, May 23, 2008 hiked the provisions for debt waiver for farmers by about 20 percent, in a move to enlarge relief measures for the Indian farmers. The net amount available for the farm loan waiver has now been raised to Rs 716.8 billion from the Rs 600 billion set aside when the announcement was made in February end at the time of Union Budget 2008-2009.
It was Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who made the announcement after a cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He remarked that the move was necessitated by the revision in estimates of the beneficiaries of the scheme. It was highlighted that against the original estimate of 30 million small and marginal farmers and 10 million others who were to benefit from the scheme, the current estimates are 36.9 million and 5.97 million respectively. The finance minister also announced fresh guidelines for availing the loan waiver scheme.
