Banks fail to score in financial inclusion in Guj

Faced with a herculean task of achieving 100 per cent financial inclusion, the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) is planning to hire a private agency to conduct surveys of potential bankable households.

Several districts showed a dismal performance by registering a financial inclusion of 50-60 per cent.

Through a sub-committee to be set up soon, SLBC will be tying up with a private agency, Little World Ltd, to identify bankable households and set up customer service points (CSPs).

Covering around 135 villages initially through a pilot project, the agency will set up these IT-enabled CSPs where villagers can access banking facilities like withdrawals up to Rs 5,000. Moreover, the committee will also be issuing smart cards for villagers at CSPs away from bank branches.

"So far, banks have covered 57 per cent of the households under financial inclusion. Through this tie-up, we hope to cover the rest of the 43 per cent by the end of February," said Patel

Of the 26 districts, only Gandhinagar achieved 100 per cent financial inclusion by the second quarter ended September 2007, said JM Patel, chief manager, Dena Bank - SLBC convenor at the 115th review meeting.

Through a survey conducted either internally or by outsourcing to private agencies, the committee hopes to widen its reach to more potential bankable households in the state.

Reviewing the performances of the state's banks, SLBC announced that at least 55 new branches were added in the half year ended September 2007. While the deposits for the period ended September 2007 grew 4.90 per cent to Rs 1,38,112 crore, the state's credit deposit ratio (CDR) stood at 71.62 per cent.

Among the districts performing below the average of 40-45 per cent were Anand, Dangs, Kheda, Kutch, Navsari and Porbandar, the committee reported.

Apart from Kisan Credit Card (KCC), SLBC is also likely to up its focus on Artisan Credit Card (ACC) and aims to cover more number of artisans in the state.