The central government is set to release Rs 22,000 crore to the account of farmers as part of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi reports News18. So far, the Centre has paid around Rs 1.57 lakh crore to farmers under the scheme.
This is the third installment of this financial year for the December to March quarter of FY22.
According to reports, the 10th installment will be released between December 15 to 25 by the government under the scheme. On Tuesday, government sources told CNBC TV18 that the Centre has so far spent Rs 43,000 crore for the PM KISAN scheme in financial year 2022 to help out farmer families. With the release of the third installment for December to March quarter, the Rs 65,000 crore budget allocated for this fiscal will be used up, the sources further said. They added that a further Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore may be additionally needed for PM KISAN in FY22 as more and more farmers are registering for the scheme.
The government is also expecting to add 15 lakh more farmers to the scheme in West Bengal which will make the total beneficiaries to 50 lakh farmers. Currently there are from the current 35 lakh farmers from West Bengal are receiving the benefits. The government has added close to 11 crore beneficiaries this year to the PM KISAN scheme so far says the report.
The centre announced the scheme in February 2019 Budget. An annual financial benefit of Rs 6,000 is provided to eligible beneficiary farmer families, payable in three equal four-monthly installments of Rs 2,000 each, according to the PM-KISAN scheme. The fund is directly transferred to the beneficiaries bank accounts.
Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that before the ninth installment, the central government had disbursed about Rs 1.37 lakh crore to around 11 crore beneficiaries under the scheme.The government has linked 2.28 crore PM KISAN beneficiaries with Kisan Credit Card scheme, under which they have been able to avail loan up to Rs 2.32 lakh crore so far.
He had also said the farmers have worked hard despite challenges of COVID-19 and ensured bumper production last year. Better output is expected in the coming days due to continued farmers’ efforts, Tomar had said.
