Bengal needs to create right situation for credit offtake

The country's largest lender State Bank of India's chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya today said that West Bengal needed to create the right situation for credit absorption in the state.
"Bengal needs to create the right situation for credit absorption. There is no logic in pouring credit when the absorption is low," she said at a FICCI session here.
This would generate unnecessary NPAs, she said.
Reacting to state finance minister Amit Mitra's contention that SBI's C-D ratio was low at 50.5 per cent in West Bengal, Bhattacharya said "The state should look at value chain financing from the bottom right to the top".

Another important thing needed is digitisation of land records. "I do not know how far it is done here," she said.
Mitra said "SBI's participation in Kisan Credit Cards, MSMe and agri-loans, SHGs was not very encouraging in the state. This has to be stepped up".
Historically, the eastern part of the country lacked in credit growth, she said.