The Odisha Government has directed the banks in the State to provide more than Rs 6,000 crore credit linkage to the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in view of the bankers going slow in this regard.Finance Principal Secretary Vishal Dev has directed the banks toimprove performance towards achieving the annual target of creditlinkage for SHGs, official sources said on Monday.
Under the 5T mandate, the Department of Mission Shakti (DoMS) had set a target to increase the average loan size to Rs 4 lakh per SHG by2022-23 and provide more than Rs 6,000 crore to SHGs in 2021-22.Similarly, the average loan size for the 2021-22 financial year comesto Rs 2.05 lakh per SHG, said the officials.Accordingly, the annual credit linkage target for SHGs during 2021-22fiscal was set at Rs 6,002.52 crore by covering 2, 80,150 SHGs. However, by August 31, 2021, only 64,548 SHGs have been credit-linked with an amount of Rs1, 321.09 crore. This accounts for achievement of physical target to the extent 23% and financial target of 22% of the financial year. With this pace, it would not be possible for the banks to achieve credit linkage target, said senior officials.
They said that at least 40% of the annual target is to be achieved by the end of second quarter.The State Government has been asking both public and private sector banks to provide credit linkage to the SHGs and accordingly this fiscal higher target was set to help strengthening these organisations and making them financially sustainable. The State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) in its recent meeting had discussed the issue at length, where Dev had asked to improve performance towards achieving annual target. Sources said that more than 45,650 applications are pending at the bank branch level for sanctioning of the credit linkage to the SHGs.
The banks have been directed to issue suitable instructions for expediting credit linkage and these financial institutions have been advised to coordinate with the officials at district and block level. The banks have been directed to act upon the pending loan applications at the earliest and to ensure that in no case loan applications requiring immediate action shall not be held on for more than 15 days. Sources said that loan applications are pending for months together in banks for which credit linkage target is not achieved. Considering growth in credit linkage and repayment of loan by SHGs, the State Government has set Rs 200 crore for interest subvention.
