Nabard ends FY09 with a gross surplus of Rs 2,095 cr

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has posted a gross surplus of Rs 2,095 crore for 2008-09, as against Rs 1,470 crore in FY08. While its balance sheet grew to Rs 1,18,793 crore at the end of March 2009 from Rs 98,500 crore in the year-ago period.

Its market borrowings in the reporting year stood at Rs 3,592 crore. Nabard’s dependence on market borrowings was less in the last financial year as compared with 2007-08 due to the availability of Rs 5,000 crore through short-term credit made available by commercial banks on soft terms (lending rates).

The bank’s Managing Director K G Karmakar said that this helped the institution to reduce its borrowings from the market, which partly helped to manage interest costs and increase the surplus level in the last financial year.

Total loans provided by Nabard during FY09 to financial institutions and state governments aggregated to Rs 49,952 crore, registering a 29 per cent growth over the Rs 38,680 crore disbursed during 2007-08.

In order to supplement short-term (ST) funds of co-operative banks and regional rural banks (RRBs), Nabard had also provided refinance credit lines, including crop loans for seasonal agricultural operations, a line of credit for weavers, etc. It also provided liquidity support in the kharif and rabi seasons to co-operative banks and RRBs, both of which availed of short-term loans worth Rs 21,460 crore in 2008-09, as against Rs 16,640 crore drawn during 2007-08.

Nabard also provided refinance support for capital formation in agriculture & allied sectors, for non-farm sector activities and for investments in the services sector to commercial banks, RRBs and co-operative banks. This aggregated to Rs 10,535 crore during FY09 – an increase of 16 per cent over the Rs 9,046-crore refinance executed during 2007-08.

The bank disbursed Rs 17,959 crore for rural infrastructure to governments in 2008-09, compared with Rs 12,535 crore in 07-08, showing a 43 per cent growth. A major portion of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) assistance that state governments received was used for investments in irrigation and agri-related projects. A separate credit line was extended to the National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA) for the rural roads component under the Bharat Nirman scheme.

Nabard continued to support the SHG Bank Linkage programme by extending refinance to commercial banks, co-operative banks and RRBs. An amount of Rs 2,620 crore was released as refinance to the banks, which constituted 25 per cent of Nabard’s total investment refinance in 2008-09.