YSR seeks Rs 4,000 cr from banks for housing scheme

Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy on Friday urged the bankers to provide up to Rs 4,000 crore as loans during the current financial year for the massive urban middle & upper middle class housing programme, Rajiv Gruhakalpa, taken up by the state government.

The government has received about 1.75 lakh applications seeking houses/apartments under this programme and would require Rs 18,000 crore to build the houses, according to the chief minister.

Under the programme, the government has promised to provide houses suited to the incomes of various cross sections of middle class at 25 per cent lower than what private builders charge besides offering bank loan up to 70 per cent of the house cost.

While acceding to the suggestion of the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) that the entire programme be spread over three years owing to the huge credit requirement, the chief minister, however, did not accept their offer of Rs 2,000 crore loan support during the first year.

"It has to be at least Rs 4,000 crore in the initial year and Rs 6,000-Rs 7,000 crore in the second year to complete the entire scheme in three years," he told the SLBC meeting.

He also asked the bankers to be liberal in providing loans to women self-help groups as the absorption levels as well as the track record when it comes to prompt repayment by these groups were quite impressive.

Meanwhile, the SLBC has announced a plan outlay of Rs 42,000 crore under the state action plan for the current financial year, which includes agricultural lending and support to other government-sponsored programmes, as compared with Rs 37,056 crore last year of which Rs 33,856 crore were agricultural loans.

The banks' deposits during 2006-07 registered a 10.66 per cent growth at Rs 1,33,817 crore with a net increase of Rs 12,899 crore while advances rose 29.30 per cent to Rs 1,16,486 crore with a net increase of Rs 26,398 crore.

The figures reflect the operations of all the public sector and private commercial banks during the year.