Andhra's annual credit plan proposed at Rs.1.33 lakh crore

The Andhra Pradesh State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) has proposed an annual credit plan of Rs.1.33 lakh crore for 2013-14, up from Rs.1.10 lakh crore in the last fiscal.

Of the total plan of Rs.1,33,074 crore, priority sector credit outlay is pegged at Rs.99,894 crore and non-priority sector Rs.33,180 crore. The outlay for the priority sector has been increased by 21.57 percent compared to Rs.82,167 crore during 2012-13.

Under the priority sector outlay, lending for agriculture is proposed at Rs.67,224 crore, which is 26.90 percent higher compared to the outlay of Rs.52,972 crore for 2012-13.

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy Tuesday released the state credit plan for the current fiscal at 181st meeting of SLBC here.

Lending for agriculture sector includes Rs.49,989 crore under crops loans (Rs.37,128 crore last fiscal), Rs.7,217 crore under agricultural term loans (6,328 crore) and Rs.10,018 crore under allied activities to agriculture (Rs 9,343 crore).

SLBC president and Andhra Bank Chairman and Managing Director B.A. Prabhakar said the share of micro and small enterprises was Rs.12,604 crore. Under housing loan and educational loans Rs.6,657 crore and Rs.2,093 crore of lending is proposed respectively.

He pointed out that banks had been continuously surpassing the targets under annual action plan every year.

"As against the target of Rs.82,167 crore under priority sector for 2012-13, banks have disbursed Rs.99,534 crore, thus achieving 121 percent of the target.

"If non-priority sector is also taken into consideration, the achievement is 129 percent with disbursement of Rs.1,42,900 crore against the projection of Rs.1,10,417 crore," he said.

He noted that the outstanding agriculture credit of banks was at Rs.125,760 crore as on March 31, 2013 which was 31.89 percent of Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) against regulatory stipulation of 18 percent.

"The outstanding agriculture credit of Andhra Pradesh continues to be one the highest in the country," Prabhakar said.

He also told the meeting that the misconception of farmers about another debt waiver is hampering the recovery of agriculture loans.

He called for building up machinery in agriculture department to address problems relating to recovery.

The chief minister said though the banks surpassed the target last year, the credit plan for this year was still less than the amount disbursed. He sought banks' cooperation in effective implementation of various schemes for agriculture and allied sectors.

He noted that the government was paying interest to banks towards interest-free loans of up to Rs.1 lakh for one crore farmers and loans of up to Rs.5 lakh for 1.46 crore women self-help groups.