If Maharashtra can waive farm loans fully, why can’t Tamil Nadu?, asks Anbumani

Chennai

PMK chief Anbumani on Wednesday asked Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay why the Maharashtra government had announced that it had waived only ₹2,044 crore of agriculture loans while waiving crop loans worth ₹36,585 crore taken by 5,572 million farmers. Mr. Vijay and the State government should not blame the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) rules for not waiving farmers’ crop loans completely as the rules do not state that crop loans cannot be waived.

Dr. In a statement, Anbumani said that the decision taken by the Maharashtra State Cabinet to waive farm loan was “historic” and the benefits reaped by farmers there were not comparable to what farmers in Tamil Nadu received.

“In Tamil Nadu, only farmers owning up to 2.5 acres of land can avail the maximum waiver of ₹50,000. While small farmers with up to 5 acres of land get between ₹5,000 and ₹25,000, large farmers get waiver loan of only ₹5,000. In contrast, in Maharashtra, they will get crop loan waiver of up to ₹2 lakh, without any distinction between small, marginal or large farmers. Accordingly, if a farmer has taken a loan of ₹2 lakh, this loan is completely waived; “If ₹3 lakh has been borrowed, only ₹1 lakh needs to be repaid and even for that, enough time is provided,” he said.

“In Tamil Nadu, only a fraction of loans taken during the 10-month period from May 1 last year to February this year were waived. However, in Maharashtra, loans taken over a six-year period from April 2019 to March 2025 are eligible for waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh. This allows even farmers trapped in the inescapable cycle of debt to get complete relief.”

Although the Tamil Nadu government claimed that 1.422 million people will benefit from the loan waiver scheme, it said only a few thousand farmers will get full loan waiver.

Dr. Anbumani said that although Mr. Vijay in his manifesto for the 2026 Assembly elections had promised complete waiver of loans for farmers owning up to 5 acres of land and 50% waiver for those owning more, his government has imposed stringent conditions and limited waivers to only ₹5,000 to ₹50,000.