The Agriculture Ministry has shared the information regarding the taxpayers with the Income Tax department to identify who all are the eligible beneficiaries under the PM – KISAN Scheme, as per the notification given by the Central Board of Direct Tax (CBDT). Some of the income taxpayers are excluded from this scheme that includes affluent farmers, income taxpayers in the previous assessment years, professionals, doctors, engineers, lawyers, and chartered accountants who also do farming and receives pension at least Rs10000 per month. For the benefits of farmer families, the Centre has released more than 8.46 crores in February 2020. As per the estimates of the Agricultural Census the scheme covers a total of 14 crore beneficiaries. The KISAN provides all landholding farmers households for assembly agriculture and gives Rs.6300 per year in 3 installments as revenue to help them. The amount is released as 3 installments of Rs.2000 each directly to their bank accounts of beneficiaries through direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode. The scheme is Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi(PM-KISAN). It is a Central Sector Scheme with 100 percent funding from the Government of India. It was launched on 01/12/2018. The definition of a family for this scheme is husband, wife, minor children. The farmers who are eligible for the support as per the scheme guidelines will be identified by the state government and the UT administration. The payment or fund will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. The first installments were Rs.2000 was provided for the period 01/12/2018 to 31/03/2019 are to be provided in the financial year itself. There are various exclusion categories for this scheme. This would protect the farmers from falling in the clutches of money lenders and ensure their continuance in the farming activities. It will also aim to supplement the financial needs of the farmers and provide various inputs to crop health and appropriate yield commensurate with the anticipated farm income at the end of the crop yield. It is an ambitious scheme which will deliver an has the potential to deliver significant welfare to the poor farmers. It also gives the power to the farmers to utilize money according to their needs. It will reduce poverty sustainable food security and ensure the wellbeing of farmers. It also helps them in better decision making and that will increase their income and their overall growth. The government should provide the fund to the scheme timely and also should try to include or to bring other schemes too.
