Despite a sharp rise in farm credit across India over the past decade, the government reveals no record of repayments, highlighting a disconnect between lending and recovery, while massive corporate loan write-offs continue to dominate bank balance sheets.
The Finance Ministry has told the Lok Sabha that bank lending to agriculture has expanded sharply over the past 12 years, even as there is no central record of how much of that money has been recovered from borrowers. In the same written reply, the government said it has not waived any agricultural loans between 2014 and 2025-26, drawing fresh attention to the contrast between relief for farmers and the write-offs allowed in the corporate lending system.
The data released by the ministry show that farm credit has risen across a wide spread of states. Uttar Pradesh’s agricultural credit increased from ₹59,277 crore in 2013-14 to ₹1,97,627 crore in 2025-26, while Rajasthan’s climbed from ₹54,777 crore to ₹1,68,585 crore. Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana also saw substantial gains. In the south, the rise was even steeper in some states: Tamil Nadu moved from ₹99,906 crore to ₹6,04,819 crore, while Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala also recorded large jumps. Overall, the government said agriculture credit disbursal over the period reached ₹21,37,903 crore.
Yet the ministry’s reply also makes clear that the centre does not maintain a consolidated record of what farmers repay, which leaves a gap in the public picture of how much of this lending remains outstanding. That matters because the government’s statement on loan waivers was unambiguous: it said no agricultural debt has been waived in the period under review. The distinction between credit expansion and actual repayment is central to the debate, but the official data stop short of answering how many borrowers remain under strain.
By contrast, the corporate side of the ledger is much easier to measure. According to the figures cited in the Lok Sabha reply, outstanding credit to large industry and the services sector at scheduled commercial banks rose from ₹30.65 lakh crore on March 31, 2015 to ₹69.22 lakh crore by March 31, 2026. Public sector banks accounted for most of that exposure, with their corporate and services book rising from ₹22.58 lakh crore to ₹41.78 lakh crore over the same period. Private sector lenders also expanded sharply, from ₹5.91 lakh crore to ₹21.92 lakh crore.
The same data show that scheduled commercial banks wrote off ₹9,91,206 crore in loans to large industry and the services sector between 2015 and 2026. Public sector banks accounted for ₹7,74,902 crore of that total, while private banks wrote off ₹1,93,919 crore. Foreign banks wrote off ₹22,385 crore and small finance banks ₹8,297 crore. Indian Express reported separately that between 2014 and September 30, 2025, loans worth ₹9.87 lakh crore owed by large corporate houses were written off, compared with ₹1.67 lakh crore of relief for agriculture and allied sectors.
The ministry has stressed that a write-off is not the same as a waiver. In accounting terms, banks use write-offs to clean up their balance sheets when repayment looks unlikely, but the borrower’s legal obligation does not disappear. Banks can still pursue recovery, though the effectiveness of that process varies. Other recent data underline the scale of the problem: Indian banks wrote off ₹16.35 lakh crore in bad loans over the past decade, with the annual total peaking in 2018-19 before easing in later years. Indian Express also reported that retail loans overtook other categories in write-offs in 2024-25, suggesting the pressure on bank books has broadened beyond agriculture and industry.
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