Mumbai: In a major relief for Maharashtra’s farming community, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday announced significant changes to the State Government’s Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Farm Loan Waiver Scheme, removing the contentious Rs 2-lakh loan ceiling and extending the eligibility period to cover outstanding farm loans up to 2026-27.
The twin decisions, announced in the Legislative Assembly while replying to the Opposition-sponsored ‘last week motion’, are expected to bring thousands of previously ineligible farmers under the ambit of the scheme, taking the total number of beneficiaries to around 56 lakh farmers across the state.
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Fadnavis said the earlier condition under which farmers with overdue loans exceeding Rs 2 lakh were automatically excluded had been scrapped. Under the previous Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Farm Loan Waiver Scheme of 2019, even borrowers whose dues exceeded the limit by Re 1 were denied benefits.
“The anomaly has now been removed to ensure that deserving farmers are not deprived of assistance merely because their outstanding amount crossed the earlier ceiling,” the Chief Minister said.
The Government has also extended the eligibility period by one financial year. While the scheme initially covered overdue loans up to 2025-26, it will now include loans outstanding till 2026-27, a move Fadnavis described as unprecedented in Maharashtra.
Calling the scheme “historic”, the Chief Minister said the State would provide loan waiver assistance worth Rs 36,000 crore, benefiting nearly 56 lakh farmers. He rejected criticism that only a fraction of eligible farmers would receive assistance, asserting that the revised scheme would have a much wider reach than initially projected.
Defending the decision, Fadnavis said the objective of the loan waiver was not to make farmers prosperous but to help distressed cultivators regain access to institutional credit and prevent them from falling into the clutches of private moneylenders.
“No farmer becomes wealthy because of a loan waiver. It is a support mechanism that enables farmers to restart cultivation with access to formal banking channels,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the Government could have deferred such a major financial decision as there are no Assembly elections until 2029. Instead, it chose to act because of the financial hardships faced by farmers.
Highlighting the State’s continued commitment to agriculture, Fadnavis said Maharashtra already provides an annual electricity subsidy of nearly Rs 25,000 crore to farmers, while various agricultural subsidy programmes together account for an outlay of around Rs 95,000 crore.
Responding to demands from legislators of the ruling alliance, the Chief Minister also announced that farmers who had benefited under the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Farm Loan Waiver Scheme would now be eligible for loan waiver benefits of up to Rs 2 lakh under the revised policy, further expanding its coverage.
He, however, ruled out removing the Rs 50,000 repayment-related condition, saying such a move would impose an additional financial burden of Rs 4,000-5,000 crore on the State exchequer.
Fadnavis acknowledged that repeated loan waivers could affect repayment discipline and weaken the financial health of cooperative banks. Nevertheless, he said the Government had carefully balanced the need to support farmers while safeguarding the banking system. Representatives of the banking sector were consulted before finalising the revised scheme.
The Chief Minister said Maharashtra plans to spend Rs 20,000 crore in the first year, Rs 22,000 crore in the second year, and Rs 25,000 crore thereafter as part of its comprehensive support package for the agriculture sector.
Describing Maharashtra as a pioneer in farmer welfare, Fadnavis noted that the State has implemented major farm loan waiver schemes in 2017, 2020 and 2026, making it the only state in the country to introduce such large-scale relief measures on multiple occasions.
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