Tamil Nadu Govt Announces Gold Loan Waiver Hours Before EC Declares Poll Schedule

Tamil Nadu CM E Palaniswami on Friday announced a gold loan waiver, hours before the Election Commission is scheduled to announce the data for assembly polls in the state, which will bring a model code of conduct into place. The state government announced that gold loans against upto six sovereigns by cooperative banks to farmers and poor will be waived.

The announcement comes hours before election Commission would release the poll dates for 4 states and one UT including Tamil Nadu at 4:30 pm on Friday, a report in NDTV said.

Palaniswami said the move would help the poor redeem the gold as the economy is yet to recover from Covid. The loan was offered by Tamil Nadu State Apex Co-operative bank as part of Covid relief measures. The interest was kept low at 6 percent p.a.

In the scheme, the loan of Rs 25,000 to Rs 1,00,000 were offered and the money had to returned in three months.

The Chief Minister had earlier announced a waiver of farm loans worth Rs 12,000 crore to over 16 lakh farmers. Palaniswami had said that it was his first duty to address the problem of the agricultural community.