By Islam Serour The legal consultant to President Morsy, Mohamed Fouad Gadallah, announced that the president would issue a decision to drop agricultural debts owed by 41,000 farmers. “After meeting Dr Mohsen Al-Batran, Chairman of the Development and Agricultural Credit Bank (DACB) and head of Farmers Syndicate, an agreement to drop EGP 93 million, representing the principal debt, and EGP 16 million representing interests on those debts," Mr Gaddallah told Al-Shorouk Newspaper on Monday. Dr Al-Batran told reporters that a draft of a presidential decision to drop the debts of 44,000 farmers whose debts are less than EGP 10,000 is awaiting the president's signature. On a separate note, the presidential spokesman, Yasser Ali denied the approval of any decision regarding dropping farmers' debts, stressing that the debt issue is still under scrutiny and research. Ali's statement was issued after rumours have been circulating on Facebook and Twitter claiming that “Morsy would drop EGP 109 million worth of debts to the agricultural bank that strain 41,000 farmers." Total farmers' debts amount to EGP 1.9 billion; which includes investment debts totalling EGP 520 million, and agricultural debt totalling EGP 400 million, which would relieve 62,000 farmers.
