Banking fraternity of Jharkhand came in the line of fire from Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma on Wednesday when the top official pulled them up for not coming clean on their duties. The outburst came during the 56th State level Bankers Committee (SlBC) meeting which brought out some disturbing figures regarding advances to priority sectors, especially agriculture.
Addressing all the heads of commercial and private banks of the State, the Chief Secretary termed the data coming out as furious. “We have some measurable outputs at hand which are not satisfactory at all. The figures relating to CD ratio, advances to SHGs, disbursal of KCC loans or be it Aadhaar seeding, lots of work is still to be done. It seems that we do not realise our duties properly. What are we doingIJ It seems that there is no accountability in place,” said the fuming CS.
Actually, the latest figures about lending from the banks put in place a sordid picture. The credit-debit ratio which was at 60.61 per cent on March 31, 2016 has come down to 59.46; i.e. lower than the benchmark set. Even agriculture advances has registered a decline and has been recorded as Rs 12,773.12 crore in comparison of Rs 12,858.56 crore in March this year.
Against the annual target of Rs 7356.42 crore for 2016-17, total disbursement to the farm sector remained only Rs 909.5 crore or 12.36 per cent in the State where over 70 per cent population is dependent on farming. The banks have made lesser disbursal of loan to the tune of Rs 2374 crore this quarter in the respect of last year figures and in the farm sector the advances have gone down by Rs 134 crore, which is cause of concern.
“It invites more focused and targeted approach from the banks. There may be difficulties but I can assure you that the State Government is ready to lend its support. Banks and Government are not across the table but we are a team. Banks have a far greater role to play in the State, which is underdeveloped, and in strengthening its economy,” added Verma.
Agriculture Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni also criticised the banks, saying they are reluctant in sharing KCC data with the Government. “We are not able to identify the actual figure as banks are unwilling to share how many KCC holders are there with their lending etc. I also have a feeling that most of the banks barring some 7-8 have no interest in issuing KCCs to the farmers,” said he.
Banks, on their part, admitted that more work was required that also put the blame on non-refund of agriculture loan which is taking a dig on the NPA figures. Net NPA of all the banks has gone up to Rs 4460.32 crore and on year-to-year basis it has shown the addition of Rs 502.86 crore or 12.70 per cent jump. Total percentage of NPA of the banks in the State has gone up to 6.13 per cent of their total advances.