The government on Monday said it was not in a position to undertake any new responsibility by way of another loan waiver scheme for farmers as the priority before it was to implement the Rs. 60,000-crore scheme announced during the budget. Replying to supplementaries during the question hour in the Lok Sabha, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the immediate task was to fulfil the commitment made to small and marginal farmers. "Let us implement the loan waiver scheme first and see the results before initiating any new scheme.' Mr. Pawar was responding to members' queries on whether the government proposed to increase the limit of two hectares to cover more farmers under the scheme. Some States had demanded an increase in the land holding limit in the drought-prone areas and separate guidelines for irrigated and un-irrigated land. Loans from moneylenders Mr. Pawar said there was no specific scheme to cover loans taken from private moneylenders as there were no records of such loans. There was no provision to bring those farmers whose landholdings were more than two hectares under the waiver scheme. However, the small and marginal farmers, who had any overdue till December 31, 2007, were eligible for the waiver. The government estimated that about three crore small and marginal farmers, comprising 81 per cent of the community, would benefit from the debt waiver scheme. All direct agricultural loans disbursed by scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions up to March 31, 2007 and overdue as on December 31, 2007, would come under the scheme. Complete waiver Marginal farmers with holdings up to one hectare and small farmers having up to two hectares would get a complete waiver of loans that were overdue as on December 31, 2007 and which remained unpaid till February 29, 2008. For other farmers, there would be a one-time settlement scheme for loans that were overdue for the same time under which a rebate of 25 per cent would be given against payment of the balance 75 per cent. For the non-defaulting farmers, relief was being given by bringing down the rate of interest from 12 to 7 per cent. The scheme would come into being from June 30 and it was planned to spend Rs. 20,000 crore this financial year.