BoI Vizag zone issues notices to 148 defaulters

The Visakahapatnam zone of Bank of India (BoI), has issued legal notices to 148 defaulters under the Securitisation Act. The Visakahapatnam zone, which has jurisdiction from Srikakulam District to Guntur district, is focusing on recoveries and business development during this fiscal.

"At present the Vizag zone's gross NPA is 20 per cent, as compared to Bank of India's gross NPA level of only 7.86 per cent. We want to reduce the zone's gross NPA level to 13 per cent by the end of this fiscal, and have issued notices under SARFAESI (Securitisation) Act to 148 defaulters," Kolar Subramanyam, zonal manager of Bank of India, told Business Standard.

"Shortly we will issue notices to another 100 defaulters and we have taken up intensive credit monitoring," he added.

BoI's main defaulters in the Vizag zone are cotton and tobacco merchants from Guntur district. In the current fiscal the bank is targeting recoveries of Rs 28 crore out of the total NPAs of Rs 109 crore.

"At the same time, we are drawing up plans to improve business in this area during this fiscal. We aim to expand our depositor base by adding 30,000 new customers and about Rs 70 crore in fresh deposits," he said.

To provide superior customer service in our branches, the bank will shortly provide core banking facilities at all its branches, he said.

"In addition to this, we are extending our network to add five more branches and five ATM centres by the end of this fiscal. With this, our number of our branches will go up to 50 in this zone," Subramanyam disclosed.

"In our lending operations we are focusing more on non-farming advances to the farming community. So far we had been concentrating on agricultural loans to farmers but now we are providing home loans, retail loans to purchase vehicles and other consumer durables to rural people particularly to the farming community," he said.

In the current fiscal, the bank expects to disburse about Rs 150 crore in the Visakahapatnam zone.