Farmers exempted from demonetisation to buy seeds

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government on Monday announced that the farmers can now use old Rs 500 currency notes for buying seeds from the state-owned outlets. The decision has been made considering the upcoming Rabi season, said the Finance Ministry.

The step has been taken to provide more relief to the farmers after recently allowing them to withdraw up to Rs 25,000 per week against sanctioned crop loans.

PM Modi has been facing flak from various political parties across the country over his November 8 decision of demonetisation of high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. Many of them have claimed that this decision would highly impact the farmers as India's agriculture sector which is mostly cash-dependent.

With no one accepting the high denomination notes, the farm owners had no money to pay farm hands which could have led to minimal or no production of key commodities. The decision had also impacted the daily-wage earners who initially struggled to make ends meet.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attacked the Centre asking for a proper plan of action in place of making new announcements on daily basis. She claimed that the lower middle class, daily wagers, traders and housewives were the worst sufferers of this decision.

The Reserve Bank recently raised the withdrawal limit of overdraft and cash credit account holders to Rs 50,000 per week. The new limit, however, isn’t applicable for personal overdraft accounts.

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