Rs 80 crore WBSCB loan for 900 buses

This includes Rs 25 crore to the Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC), Rs 11 crore to the South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC), Rs 8 crore to the Calcutta Tramway Company (CTC), Rs 6.5 crore to West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation (WBSTC) and Rs 8 crore to the North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC).

 

The transport companies would be using this money to buy around 900 buses in the state, out of which CSTC alone would be buying 700 buses.

"We would be lending Rs 80 crore to various transport bodies of the state in the current fiscal like CSTC, SBSTC, CTC, WBSTC and NBSTC," said Samir Ghosh, chairman, WBSCB.

This apart the bank has also sanctioned a bridge loan of Rs 125 crore, for a period of 3 months to the West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation Ltd.

The corporation would be using the money to buy essential commodities like wheat and rice for the coming fiscal.

During the year 2007-08, WBSCB has reported a net profit of Rs 10.15 crore, up 1.20 percent from Rs 10.03 crore reported in the same period a year ago.

Commenting about the performance, Ghosh added that the growth in net profit could have been higher but the bank had to make an additional provision of Rs 8.1 crore on the account of the rising agricultural NPA.

"The net NPA of the bank rose to 5.89 percent against 5 percent in the last fiscal owing to the low recovery of the agricultural loans on the account of the Revival Package and the Debt Waiver Scheme. Our recovery from the agricultural sector came down to 56 percent from 72 percent a year ago," he explained.

In absolute terms the net NPA of the bank amounted to Rs 129 crore out of which agricultural sector accounted for Rs 100 crore.

Total deposit of the bank in FY08 stood at Rs 2,575 crore, up 5 percent compared to Rs 2,453 crore registered in the corresponding period last year.

In the same period total advances grew by 11.46 percent to Rs 2,206.46 crore against Rs 1,979.66 crore reported a year ago.

Meanwhile the bank is planning to open 15 new branches in the current financial year.

The bank has already approached Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in this regard.

In addition to this the bank is also awaiting the regulator's nod for opening ATM counters.

"We aim to be the first State Cooperative bank to have ATMs if we get the approval," the chairman said while announcing the financial results.