Banks told to increase credit flow

BHUBANESWAR: The pressure is on banks to increase credit flow to agriculture as the State Credit Plan has set a target of Rs 1,294 crore under Agriculture sector for the financial year 2011-12.The State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) Meeting for Orissa was held on Thursday under Executive Director, UCO Bank, Ajai Kumar to finalise the total credit plan to the tune of Rs 2,522 crore but harped on  raising the bar on agriculture finance performance.Agriculture is the mainstay of the State’s economy by contributing 23.43 per cent of the Net State Domestic Product along with animal husbandry while providing direct and indirect employment to 65 per cent of the population.But the performance of the banks in the sector has been found wanting. In 2010-11, banks as a whole have lent Rs 6,752 crore to agriculture against the target of Rs 9,166 crore. They managed to achieve only 74 per cent of the target.The issue had been raised in the small SLBC meeting on higher agriculture credit flow recently with Development Commissioner RN Senapati pointing out that excluding the Orissa State Cooperative Bank all other banks have not even achieved 50 per cent of the target set under agriculture.The banks have to finance more aggressively agriculture sector to enhance the income of the farmers, to pull them out from the clutches of private moneylenders and to increase agriculture production. There is a need to develop modern marketing systems and promote agro-processing units along with diversification of crops and agriculture research, the meeting resolved.The meeting also noted that the performance of banks in financing  agriculture allied sector was also very poor. A large number of applications are pending under pisciculture with different banks. They have to be disposed of by the banks immediately. As on March 31 this year as many as 2,653 applications are pending at different banks which have been instructed to finance the high-value fisheries proposals promptly.Setting the target for achieving financial inclusion in the State, the timeline for bringing all the 1,878 villages with population of more than 2,000 and without banking facility under the net through business correspondent or facilitator has been fixed within March 2012. Till date banks have brought 836 villages under financial inclusion.The review of the financial institutions revealed that banks as a whole in the State have got credit-deposit (CD) ratio of 65 per cent while priority sector lending is 57.54 per cent against national parameter of 40 per cent. Under Annual Credit Plan 2010-11, the achievement of banks in all sectors was 97 per cent.