Apex regulatory bank of the country the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shown unhappiness over leaping non performing assets (NPAs) incurred by commercial banks in Jharkhand. It even further cautioned the bankers against complacency on this front, which may lower their confidence level while facing the challenges before the State on financial fronts.
Addressing biggest gathering of all the Government and privately owned commercial banks of the State at 53rd State level Bankers’ Committee (SlBC) meet on Monday RBI’s Regional Director MK Verma said, “Gross NPA of Jharkhand has reached at 6.20 per cent of total lending which is not a good sign at all. If we add restructuring of pending repayments or loans, that is going to become mandatory now as per new set of financial disciples, the NPA would jump as much as 10 per cent. This is an alarming situation.”
The figures are despite good show by the banks on lending fronts which has taken credit-debit ratio up to 60.7 per cent as of September 30, 2014 against 57 per cent during last the previous year. Banks have also put up a good show in achieving credit target. Credit target for the banks for this financial year is `26923 crore and `14446 crore or 53 per cent of that has been disbursed so far. The achievement is well above than the previous year disbursal; 28 per cent.
“Performances on these parameters are good but if not played well on recovery front then the banks would not be able to get confidence desired to perform. In our views, for consistent performance the banks have to focus to recover their outstanding loans and be careful in lending for the future as well,” stressed MK Verma. Chief General Manager of BOI, the SlBC convener bank for the State, RN Kar admitting about the NPA sought help from the Government for their recovery.
The apprehension of the regulatory bank can be understood in the lights of recently rolled out lending schemes for housing for all, through Mudra bank, National Urban livelihood Mission and other skill development programmes where making available credits to common man is the key for their success. Under Mudra bank, over 1.45 lakh persons in the State have been given loans amounting more than `5000 crore as per the latest figures.
Also present on the occasion was Development Commissioner RS Poddar who also cautioned bankers to do away with middlemen culture. “We have heard that some banks are even demanding collateral while financing loans under Mudra Bank which is a complete no-no. It may be because of middlemen. Also more loan under this is under ‘Shishu’ category and you should also give substantial attention under ‘Kishore’ and ‘Tarun’ loans as well,” said the official.
He also rapped the banks for lending conservatively under Kisan Credit Card meant for farm loan. Against 45 lakh farmers in the State numbers suggest that not more than 15 lakh of them take advantages of KCC financing. The Commissioner of Development at the same time stressed on preparing dedicated action plans for districts where CD ratio remains below 40 per cent.