BHUBANESWAR: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has projected an overall credit potential under priority sector at Rs 1,34,665 crore for the year 2022-23 with greater emphasis on MSME, agriculture and rural infrastructure.
The projection made by the bank for the state in 2021-22 was Rs 1,10,735 crore. There is an increase of around 21.61 per cent (pc) in the credit requirement in the coming fiscal over credit projection of 2021-22. This was part of the focus paper for Odisha released at the state credit seminar by Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari.
Credit potential under MSME sector has been assessed at Rs 60,001.27 crore, constituting around 44.56 pc of the total priority sector followed by 38.65 pc for agriculture sector. Of the credit requirement for the agriculture sector, Rs 48,221.10 crore (92.64 pc) is estimated under farm credit, which comprises both crop loans, term loans and allied activities. Besides, credit potential under agriculture infrastructure and ancillary activities has been estimated at Rs 1,824.33 crore and Rs 2,005.34 crore respectively.
Other sectors consisting of export credit, education, housing, renewable energy, others and social infrastructure have around 16.79 pc share in the total credit potential under priority sector.
Inaugurating the seminar, the Finance Minister emphasised the need for increasing the bank credit for priority sector as the state government has been pushing a lot of support through various schemes like Balaram, Kalia, Samrudhi, Millet Mission, FPOs.
Activities such as animal husbandry, poultry and fisheries leading to asset formation and diversification of the income basket of farmers need to be credit-linked, Pujari said.