BHUBANESWAR: The State government on Wednesday urged commercial banks operating in Odisha to extend their reach to unbanked gram panchayats (GPs) and enhance credit flow to priority sectors.
Expressing concern over banks not meeting their target for opening branches in rural areas, Finance Minister Shashi Bhushan Behera asked the State heads of all commercial banks to take up the financial inclusion programme in a mission mode.
Though the banks have covered 45,888 villages which constitute 94.61 per cent of the total target, only 657 villages are covered through brick and mortar branches while rest of the areas are provided banking service through branchless modes by banking correspondents (BCs).
The Finance Minister expressed his displeasure over the fact that only six branches have been opened out of 78 villages identified. Each of these villages has more than 5000 population. Altogether, 10 new branches have been opened till June-end.
“The SBI has provided services through banking correspondents in 488 unbanked GPs while some other banks have indicated their consent to open 65 brick and mortar branches before December, 2017. If this is done, about 50 pc of the 1,474 unbanked GPs will be covered,” Behera said after the State level bankers committee (SLBC) meeting.
Addressing the meeting, the Finance Minister said the poor credit deposit (CD) ratio in many of the districts in the State is a matter of great concern. He emphasised on sanction of credit to the priority sectors for achieving the target envisaged in the annual credit plan prepared by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The CD ratio in 12 districts of the State has below 40 pc and Sambalpur district is at the bottom of the list. He suggested to organise credit workshops for sectors like MSME, agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry, textile, housing and higher education at periodic intervals where bankers along with field officers of departments concerned would come together to identify potential entrepreneurs and process bankable proposals.
As the annual credit plan target is fixed at Rs 60,000 crore for priority sector lending, the Minister urged the bankers to extend maximum credit supports to meet the target.
Principal Secretary of Finance Tuhin Kanta Pandey advised the bankers to follow the RBI guidelines in the matter of opening bank branches in rural areas.