UP credit appetite grows

The credit growth in Uttar Pradesh has picked up in the current financial year, better than the previous year, as well as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) benchmark.

This indicates a good credit appetite among UP industry and agriculture sector.

In the first quarter (Q1) of 2010-11, the banks have made advances of Rs 10,364 crore against the Annual Credit Plan (ACP) of Rs 50,877 crore for the financial year.

The Q1 advances are 20.37 per cent of the ACP against the RBI benchmark of 15 per cent for the first three months of a financial year.

During 2009-10, Q1 advances had stood at 19.38 per cent against the ACP of Rs 45,249 crore.

Besides, 63 districts in UP have been entirely financially included, while the rest 8 districts will follow suit by the end of financial year.

Of the total advances, agriculture had the maximum of Rs 6,684 crore, followed by small enterprises at Rs 1,975 crore. The services sector received advances of Rs 1,705 crore.

Meanwhile, the UP State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) met under the chairmanship of Bank of Baroda (BOB) executive director N S Srinath.

Srinath said ACP, financial inclusion, credit deposit (CD) ratio and Kisan Credit Card (KCC) had shown good progress in UP. He urged the state government to facilitate the banks in further increasing the credit flow.

RBI Regional Director Amarendra Sahoo (UP & Uttarakhand) expressed concern over the rise in the banks’ non performing assets (NPA).

SLBC Convener and BOB General Manager (UP & Uttarakhand) S C Ahuja said all villages having population of over 2,000 will be provided banking facilities with branch expansion and business correspondence model.

“At many places, this model has started functioning giving impetus to agricultural credit and the income of farmers,” he added.