New Delhi, Dec. 16 -- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday informed the Lok Sabha that the government has taken several measures to provide relief to agricultural borrowers affected by natural disasters, including loan restructuring and rescheduling by commercial banks.

RBI Guidelines on Natural Calamity Relief

The Finance Minister said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued Master Directions on October 17, 2018, outlining relief measures by banks in areas affected by natural calamities.

These directions recognise events such as cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, floods, landslides, cloudbursts, pest attacks and cold waves as natural calamities.

Accordingly, short-term agricultural loans, except those already overdue a...