Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 29: J&K Bank today convened the 104th State Level Bankers’ Committee meeting here at SKICC, which was presided over by the Chief Secretary, Bharat Bhushan Vyas.
Briefing the house on the occasion J&K Bank Chairman & CEO and Convener JKSLBC Parvez Ahmed said, “The banks operating in J&K have extended total credit of Rs 16802.34 Cr to 553975 beneficiaries under Priority as well as Non-priority sector during the FY 2016-17 against annual target of Rs 27649.47 Cr for 1242750beneficiaries under Annual Credit Plan (ACP) 2016-17, thereby registering an achievement of 45 percent (pc) in physical terms and 61 pc in financial terms.”
This includes Priority Sector credit of Rs 9331.49 Cr disbursed in favour of 355838 beneficiaries against the annual target of Rs 18267.84 Cr for 939363 beneficiaries (constituting 51 pc achievement in financial terms) and Non-priority sector credit of Rs 7470.85 Cr disbursed in favour of 198137 beneficiaries against annual target of Rs 9381.63 Cr for 303387 beneficiaries (constituting achievement of 80 pc in financial terms).
Notably, J&K Bank alone has disbursed Rs 11906.37 Cr, which makes for 71 pc of the total credit extended by the 46 banks and financial institutions operating in the State.
The meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner Rev-enue, Lokesh Dutt Jha, Commis-sioner/ Secretary Finance Navin Kumar Chaudhary, Commi-ssioner/ Secretary Housing & Urban Development Hirdesh Kumar, Regional Director Reserve Bank of India N K Sahu, Chief General Manager NABARD Vijay Kumar, other senior functionaries of the State Government, banks, representatives of Insurance companies and BSNL.
In his presidential remarks, Chief Secretary B B Vyas emphasized upon the role of banks in J&K as extremely important, particularly as the State is passing through a rather difficult phase.
Commenting upon the lending of banks, he said, “Our priority should be on the focus areas like pushing the Credit Deposit Ratio up to that of 60 percent, the target given by the RBI Chief. It is a task where we are lagging behind and we need to gear up and work together to achieve this.” Citing the engagement of youth in remunerative enterprises, he urged the bankers to launch a concerted campaign.
Chief Secretary pointed out that despite having huge potential, the credit offtake under Housing and Education Sectors has remained abysmally low. He impressed upon the banks to put in concerted efforts so that credit disbursements under these sectors is substantially improved.
In order to address the issue, a sub-committee was constituted which will be chaired by the Chief Secretary along with Commissioner Secretary, Finance Department, Chairman J&K Bank and senior functionaries from the State Government and major banks, The sub committee would look into the impediments in the way of smooth disbursement of credit under Housing and Education Sectors and also to draw the roadmap for creating awareness among the masses about the Education and Housing Schemes of banks.
Earlier, commenting on the performance of banks in Govern-ment Sponsored Schemes (GSS) in the State, Chairman Parvez Ahmed said that against the Annual Action Plan 2016-17 target of Rs 201.88 Cr for 9991beneficiaries for all banks operating in the State, the achievement of banks under four major sponsored schemes viz. NRLM, PMEGP NULM and SC/ST/ OBC stood at Rs 136.89 Cr for 7508 beneficiaries in all the three regions of the State thereby achieving 68 pc of the target in financial terms.
Breaking the priority sector further into sub-sectoral achievement of targets, he said, “86 pc of the targets have been achieved in Agriculture, 50 pc in MSME, 63 pc in Export Credit, 49 pc in Renewable Energy and 18 pc in other segments.”
“Looking at the credit dispensation across three regions of the State, we have achieved 69 pc of targets in Kashmir, 50 pc in Jammu and 100 pc in Ladakh”, he said.
During the meeting, Commi-ssioner Secretary Finance, Naveen Kumar Chowdhary urged banks with large presence besides J&K Bank to push their lending figures up in the state.
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