Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha ridiculed the loan waiver scheme announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram for small and marginal farmers during his budget speech on Friday and accused the latter of fooling around with the people.
"He has announced that the loans taken by small and marginal farmers from the banks would be waived because of their inability to pay back the amount due to adverse conditions prevailing in the various states that has forced the farmers to commit suicide. The treasury benches were happy and beat the desks to applaud the minister. The fine print is yet to come and we would like to know from where he plans to generate funds to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore," Sinha sought to know addressing chartered accountants in the investors' cell of Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday.
According to the former finance minister, Chidrambaram had made a mistake by announcing that the loan waiver exercise would be completed by June 2008.
"Anyone will tell you that revenue department officials do not part with certificates so easily. Arun Shourie (BJP leader) was jokingly saying that may be the farmer will have to take a loan from banks to deal with this one," he said.
Sinha wanted to know why the finance minister did not increase the benefits under various schemes if he could announce a Rs 60,000 crore deal for the farmers.
