Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 16: The J&K Bank has alone disbursed Rs 5337.53 crore to 116207 beneficiaries, which accounts for 66 pc of the total credit disbursed by all (46) banks and financial institutions operating in Jammu and Kashmir during H1 of the current financial year 2015-16.
The banks operating in J&K have extended credit of Rs 8080.21 crore to 214155 beneficiaries during H1 of this year, thereby, registering an achievement of 34.23 pc of the Annual Credit Plan (ACP) target in financial terms.
This includes priority sector credit of Rs 5023.48 crore disbursed by banks to 172268 beneficiaries (33.93 pc) achievement in financial terms against the target of Rs 14804.83 crore for 816524 beneficiaries and non-priority sector credit of Rs 3056.73 crore to 41887 beneficiaries (34.73 pc) achievement in financial terms) against target of Rs 8800.40 crore for 241382 beneficiaries.
Chairman & CEO of the J&K Bank and Convenor, J&K State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) Mushtaq Ahmad stated this at the 99th meeting of SLBC at Jammu today, which was presided over by Chief Secretary, J&K Government B R Sharma.
The meeting was also attended by Commissioner/ Secretary (Finance), Naveen Chowdary, Commissioner/Secretary Housing & Urban Development Bipul Pathak, Commissioner/ Secretary Industries & Commerce/Labour & Employment Shailendra Kumar, Commissioner/Secretary, Agriculture Production MA Bukhari, Secretary, Social Welfare Department Sanjeev Verma, Regional Director (RBI) D Sethy, other senior functionaries of the State Government departments, RBI, banks, NABARD, developmental agencies and representatives of various insurance companies.
Chief Secretary said, “Although the Credit Deposit Ratio of the State has improved from 47.27 pc to 49.34 pc however, it is not at par with the national benchmark of 60 pc. Banks should make concerted efforts to take the CD Ratio to 60 pc.”
Stressing upon the need to implement Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Scheme in all the districts of the State without any further delay, he urged the banks and concerned Government departments to complete the process of validation of beneficiary’s accounts in a time-bound manner.
Earlier, Chairman of the JK Bank Mr Mushtaq said, “J&K SLBC is making concerted efforts to implement various initiatives taken by Central and State Governments for the overall economic development of the State. These initiatives include Financial Inclusion, Implementation of EBT Scheme, setting up of Financial Literacy Centers and Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) in all districts.”
He said that Financial Inclusion, which is a prestigious project of Central Government has always remained our high priority for promoting inclusive growth by bringing the financially excluded into the banking fold. After successfully accomplishing the target under Phase-I of the Financial Inclusion Plan the Phase-II of the Plan, envisaging provision of banking services to 5582 identified un-banked villages having population below 2000 in J&K State, has also been completed, he added.
He further stated that the banks in J&K State have opened 16.91 lakh fresh accounts upto September 30, 2015 under PMJDY.
Regarding performance under GSS, he stated that against annual ACP target of Rs 171.61 crore for 10902 beneficiaries, the banks in J&K have disbursed Rs 40.21 crore to 1696 beneficiaries under four major GSS viz. NRLM, PMEGP, NULM and SC/ST/OBC at the end of September, 2015 thereby registering an achievement of 23% target in financial and 16% in physical terms.
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