Banks & #39; Slr In Excess Of Govt Borrowings

Commercial banks' holding over the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) in 2000-01 amounts to Rs 1,06,000 crore -- Rs 28,647 crore higher than the net government borrowing of Rs 77,353 crore. The excess over SLR held by the banks as on March, 2000, was Rs 85,000 crore.

The banking system held SLR securities amounting to 35.1 per cent of net demand and time liabilities as on March 31, 2001, as against the stipulated SLR requirement of 25 per cent. Commercial banks' holding of SLR securities as on March 31, 2000, was at 34.5 per cent of net demand and time liabilities.

Scheduled commercial banks' non-SLR investments also increased by Rs 14,138 crore in the last financial year compared with an increase of Rs 13,102 crore during the previous fiscal.

Credit off-take of the banking industry (adjusted for non-SLR investments) was lower at 15.8 per cent as against a 17 per cent growth during 1999-2000. The government share in the adjusted credit during 2000-01 remained high at 40.6 per cent.

Bank credit (adjusted) to the commercial sector decelerated to 15.6 per cent in the last fiscal from 19 per cent in 1999-2000. The deceleration was mainly on account of a lower off-take of non-food credit in the last quarter of 2000-01.

The non-food credit off-take during January-March 2001 quarter was at Rs 11,190 crore worked out to be almost half the off-take of Rs 20,688 crore during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The growth in the net bank credit to the government was also lower at 16.1 per cent in 2000-01 as against 14.1 per cent in the year before.