The government of India on Friday announced a "direct money transfer" scheme for small and marginalized farmers owning up to two acres of agriculture land, whereby the farmers would receive 6,000 Indian Rupees annually from the government.
Announcing the "Interim Budget-2019" at the parliament's lower house, the country's Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the amount would be deposited directly into the farmers' bank accounts in three equal installments of 2,000 Indian Rupees each.
The scheme came into effect retrospectively from Dec. 1, 2018, he said, adding that the first installment would be deposited into the farmers' bank accounts soon after identifying such farmers.
The scheme would benefit around 130 million small and marginalized farmers. To be totally financed by the government, the scheme would cost around 11.2 billion U.S. dollars, said the finance minister. (1 U.S.dollar equals to around 71.24 Indian Rupees).