Odisha annual credit plan enhanced to Rs 40,000 cr

Bowing to the state government’s pressure to enhance annual credit requirement projections for the state for 2014-15, the state level banker’s committee (SLBC) on Monday approved revised credit projections of Rs 40,000 crore.

Earlier, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) had pegged the credit requirement for the state at Rs 36,959.92 crore for the next fiscal.

The state government, however, had flayed Nabard’s projection, terming it as ‘conservative’. Of the revised total credit plan of Rs 40,000 crore, approved today at the 134th SLBC meeting, agriculture has the lion’s share of Rs 22,837.42 crore. The sum allocated for crop production is revised to Rs 16,183.80 crore while term investment under agriculture and allied sector is enhanced to Rs 6,653.62 crore from Rs 4,819.35 crore estimated earlier. In the non-farm bracket, that includes agro and food processing and MSME (micro small and medium enterprises), Rs 5,700 crore has been allocated in the new projection while credit flow to other priority areas is pegged at Rs 11, 462.58 crore for the next fiscal.

“As the credit disbursement achievement is low, the target seems to be higher,” U N Behera, additional chief secretary (finance) told the bank officials in the meeting.

The state government also expressed it dissatisfaction over the credit deposit (CD) ratio figure compiled by the SLBC.

“The bankers show that they have achieved 56.87 per cent CD ratio which contradicts the RBI report. The RBI report has put the ratio at around 44 per cent, nearly 12 per cent less,” said Behera.

A decline of 12 per cent means the credit disbursement is estimated at Rs 20,000 crore less in the state against the total deposit of around Rs 160,000 crore, he added.

The CD ratio stood at 89.70 per cent including the advances sanctioned out of state but utilised in Odisha as per the recommendations of the Thorat committee. But area-wise ratio excluding advances sanctioned out of state for projects in Odisha stood at 56.87 per cent.

A committee has been formed to reconcile the matter as the data of RBI and SLBC do not match, he added.

Banks in Odisha have issued 686,244 Kishan Credit Cards (KCCs) for Rs 7,312.35 crore during the half year ending December, 2013. The meeting was also attended by Arun Kaul, chairman and managing director of UCO Bank.