Credit flow to infra sector declines

Retail loans increased: RBI data.

Credit growth to the infrastructure sector has seen a decline in September, while retail loans increased significantly, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India.

The figures show a 20.3 per cent comedown on year-on-year credit growth to the infrastructure sector in September as against 47.4 per cent in the same month last year. The total amount outstanding as on September 23 to the sector stood at Rs 5,64,958 crore as against Rs 469,621 crore in the corresponding month in 2010.

The banks are no longer sanctioning fresh loans to the power sector, while they are going slow in their disbursements for the road projects.

“We are not sanctioning fresh loans for the power sector. Only the loans sanctioned earlier are being disbursed now,” said a top official of Corporation Bank.

As far as roads are concerned, the bank going slow in funding projects featured by aggressive bidding for the premiums, the official added.

While the credit disbursal to the infrastructure is declining, the credit deployment by banks to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) remained high at 46.2 per cent for September. The loan outstanding for the sector rose to Rs 1,83,761 in that month as against Rs 125,667 crore in the same month last year, according to RBI.

On a monthly basis, the credit outstanding with the NBFCs rose to Rs 1,83,761 crore in September from Rs 1,74,880 crore in August.

Although the credit disbursal to the NBFCs has seen a growth on yearly basis, on month on month basis the credit outstanding to the NBFCs that had shown a decline in absolute terms increased till August.

Now, the data shows that there has been an increase in the loan to this sector between August to September.

According to RBI, personal loans increased by 15.2 per cent in September, significantly higher than the growth of 8.6 per cent in the previous year.

“Most of the components of personal loans such as housing, advances against fixed deposits, advances to individuals against shares, bonds and vehicle loans registered accelerated growth,” RBI said.