Will Government Hike PM Kisan Payout To Support Farmers In Interim Budget 2024?

In the interim budget 2024 which finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present on Feb 1 (Thursday), there are speculations that the government will increase financial assistance for farmers under its flagship direct benefit transfer scheme - Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi or PM-Kisan yojana to either Rs 8,000 or Rs 9,000 per year.

According to the Times of India (TOI) report quoting officials, the government will likely increase the amount of money transferred under the PM-Kisan yojana, which is currently fixed at Rs 6,000 annually, providing a boost to nearly 11 crore land-holding farmers across the nation.

The report quoted official sources as saying that various options are on the table, which range from increasing the annual payment to either Rs 8,000 or Rs 9,000.

The payment may be disbursed in four installments of Rs 2,000 each in case of a total annual amount of Rs 8,000 or in installments of Rs 3,000 each if it is increased to Rs 9,000, official sources added.

Meanwhile, there is also the possibility of giving a higher amount to women farmers and the annual amount in that case could be in the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000.

An increase to Rs 8,000 will increase the annual allocation to Rs 88,000 crore, while annual support of Rs 9,000 will cost Rs 99,000 crore.

The budget session of Parliament is expected to start on January 31, with President Droupadi Murmu addressing a joint sitting.

Under PM-KISAN yojana, the government is said to have disbursed over Rs 2.8 lakh crore to over 11 crore farmers in 15 installments. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), a Central Sector Scheme, aims at providing financial assistance to all cultivable landholding farmer families across the country, subject to certain exclusion criteria. Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs. 6000/- is transferred annually in three equal installments of Rs.2000/- directly into the Aadhaar bank accounts of the farmers.

The PM-KISAN Scheme was launched in Feb. 2019. In the last financial year i.e 2022-23, a total amount of Rs. 58,201.85 crore was disbursed to eligible beneficiaries.