Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra has directed all departments to review and distribute the Single Nodal Accounts (SNAs) among empanelled banks in an equitable manner.

Mahapatra has recently written a letter to the Additional Chief Secretaries (ACSs), Principal Secretaries, Secretaries of all departments on distribution of SNAs among empanelled banks.

A report from Public Financial Management System (PFMS) shows that 110 SNAs for Central Sponsored Schemes (CSS) implemented by 17 departments have been assigned to 11 empanelled banks, the Chief Secretary said.

It was observed that public sector banks account for 55.88 per cent achievement of annual credit plan (ACP) and private sector banks account for 15.54 per cent.

However, only 57 SNAs out of the 110 SNAs are assigned to eight public sector banks (PSBs) and the remaining 53 to three private sector banks i.e. ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank, he said.

Even within PSBs, the distribution is highly skewed. SBI operates 33 SNAs whereas PSBs like, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Bank of India and Union Bank of India were allotted very few SNAs, the Chief Secretary observed.

Further, he said the Indian Overseas Bank, IndusInd Bank and Bandhan Bank, despite excellent performance under ACP achievement for FY 2021-22, do not have any SNAs.

“Some departments have distributed all SNAs to only three private sector banks i.e. ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank,” he pointed out. 

Based on the composite index calculated on the basis of share in total ACP achievement of the State, achievement against ACP target, CD ratio and total branches, the PSBs should have been assigned 70 SNAs whereas they are having only 57 SNAs.

Similarly, the private sector banks should have got 40 SNAs, where as they are having 53 SNAs operated only by three banks i.e. HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank.

“All departments are therefore advised to review and distribute the Single Nodal Accounts among empanelled banks in an equitable manner, keeping in view their respective share in total ACP achievement of the State, achievement against ACP target, CD ratio and total branches,” directed the Chief Secretary.

Further, Mahapatra advised the departments to share the details of SNAs opened by their department for CSSs with the Finance Department for future reference.

Notably, the Finance Department had issued a detailed advisory in October, 2021, to all departments regarding selection of banks for opening SNAs under the CSS based on key parameter, like CD Ratio, ACP Achievement and No. of Branches.