Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the government has disbursed Rs 18,253 crore under the PM-Kisan (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme during the ongoing lockdown.
Under the scheme, each farmer receives up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support and the scheme is totally funded by the central government.
Front-loading the release of the first instalment under the scheme was part of the Rs 1.70-lakh-crore Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) announced on March 26 to protect the poor from the impact of the coronavirus lockdown.
The lockdown was imposed by the government on March 25 to stem the spread of Covid-19 and it has been extended twice till date.
She said in a tweet that about three crore farmers with agricultural loans totalling Rs 4,22,113 crore took the benefit of the three-month loan moratorium announced by the RBI in March.
Moreover, a support of Rs 4,224 crore was provided to states under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) during March 2020 to promote rural employment through infrastructure projects.
A working capital limit of Rs 6,700 crore has been sanctioned for procurement of agriculture commodities by state government entities since March 2020
The RIDF is a pool created to meet the shortfall in specified priority sector lending by banks. The fund is managed by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).
