The government today said there is no proposal under consideration to waive off loans of farmers of the country. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said, however, to reduce the debt burden of farmers, some major initiatives have been taken which include an interest subvention scheme for short term crop loans up to three lakh rupees. <br/><br/>He said under the scheme additional subvention of three per cent is given to those farmers who repay their short term crop loan in time, thereby reducing the effective rate of interest to four per cent per annum for such farmers. The minister said Reserve Bank of India has issued directions for relief measures to be provided by respective lending institutions in areas affected by natural calamities which include restructuring and rescheduling of existing crop loans and term loans, extending fresh loans, relaxed security and margin norms and moratorium.<br/><br/> Mr Gangwar said these directions have been so designed that the moment calamity is declared by the concerned District Authorities they are automatically set in motion without any intervention, thus saving precious time.