No proposal to hike amount under PM-Kisan from Rs 6,000 per farmer annually: Narendra Singh Tomar

New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday said there is no proposal to increase the amount provided to the farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) from the existing Rs 6,000 per farmer annually.

"At present, there is no proposal to further increase the amount of PM-KISAN from Rs 6,000," Tomar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Under the PM-KISAN, a central scheme being implemented since December 2018, an amount of Rs 6,000 per year is transferred in three four-monthly instalments of Rs 2,000 each directly into the bank accounts of the farmers.

So far, the Centre has disbursed over Rs 2.81 lakh crore in 15 instalments, benefiting more than 11 crore farmers, Tomar said.

The scheme aims at providing financial assistance to all landholding farmer families across the country, subject to certain exclusion criteria, to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.

The PM-KISAN scheme is one of the largest Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme of the world, the minister added.