BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Wednesday asked banks to sanction credit to priority sectors in order to achieve the target envisaged in the annual credit plan prepared by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
With the Government taking all possible measures to double farmers’ income, commercial banks operating the State have a key role to play by leveraging credit flow to agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry and textile sectors, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance TK Pandey told bankers at the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting here.
Addressing the 153rd SLBC meeting, Pandey advised bankers to provide more finance to social sector with special emphasis on infrastructure projects, housing and education.
Expressing concern over banks not meeting their target for opening branches in rural areas, Pandey asked the State heads of all commercial banks to take up the financial inclusion programme in a mission mode by inducting more banking correspondents in unbanked areas.
He said State Bank of India has made operational banking correspondents in 488 unbanked gram panchayats.
As per the latest report of the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance, 2197 villages in the State do not have banking facility.
Pandey urged the banks to take immediate steps to open bank branches as per the target set by SLBC and banking outlets in unbanked villages by end of this year.
According to the latest data collected by SLBC, banks operating in the State have extended credit of `31,158.58 crore as against the annual credit plan of `71,420 crore by the end of September. The banks have achieved 72.69 per cent of the credit target for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector by the end of the second quarter of the current fiscal.
As credit deposit ratio of nine districts was less than 40 per cent, the Finance Secretary asked banks to improve their performance and requested the regional office of RBI to take necessary measures. He further requested the State heads of the banks to ensure that Government assistance under different schemes are paid to beneficiaries through bank accounts in time.