KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Banks operating in J&K State have extended credit aggregating to Rs 5, 801.24 Crore during first quarter of FY 2015-16 registering an achievement of 25% of the given target. J&K Bank alone has disbursed Rs 4, 194.09 Crore, which accounts for 72% of the total credit disbursed by all 46 banks/Financial Institutions operating in the State.
This was revealed by Mushtaq Ahmad, Chairman & CEO, J&K Bank, who is also Convenor J&K SLBC, while presiding over the 98th meeting of J&K State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) today at SKICC Srinagar.
The meeting was attended by Ramesh Chand, General Manager Reserve Bank of India, A K Dogra Dy Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, GoI, Commissioners/ Secretaries of State Government, senior officers of banks, Reserve Bank of India, NABARD, State Government Departments & developmental agencies and representatives of various insurance companies .
Mushtaq Ahmad while taking review of the performance of the banks for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, stated that J&K SLBC is making concerted efforts to implement various initiatives taken by the Central and State Government for the overall economic development of the State. Describing Financial Inclusion as an engine of empowerment at grass-root level, he said, “Financial Inclusion is the prestigious project of GoI that continues to remain our priority for promoting inclusive growth and bringing into the banking fold the people who are still financially excluded”.
“We need to empower people to come to a level where they can save and financial inclusion provides an opportunity to translate India’s population into a growth engine provided all the stakeholders display seriousness and pursue the cause on mission-mode basis,” he said. He further stated that after successful implementation of the Swabhiman programme, the Phase-II of the Financial Inclusion Programme was taken up for implementation in the State and against the target of covering 5,582 identified unbanked villages (having population less than 2000) in the State, 5,466 villages have been covered, which accounts for 98% of the target.
The Chairman stated that the financial inclusion programme has got focused attention after Prime Minister declared this as a national mission for implementation through special programme “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana’. “Under this programme banks have opened 16.84 lakh fresh accounts up to 31st July 2015 and issued RuPay Debit Cards to 14.31 beneficiaries under the scheme” Chairman revealed.
Laying emphasis on Banking Correspondent (BC) model to further the cause of financial inclusion, A K Dogra Dy Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, GoI urged the banks to make BC model more viable by increasing the number of BCs and bringing in more people , especially from remote and unbanked segments, into the fold of formal financial system.
Ramesh Chand, GM RBI laid emphasis on financial literacy initiatives and urged the member banks to regularly organize such camps to take the message forward.
Chairman Mushtaq Ahmad further revealed that the C. D. Ratio of all banks operating in the State at the end of Q1 of FY 2015-16 stood at 47.44% against 46.47% during the corresponding period of previous year. “Though there is an encouraging increase of roughly one percent, we need to gear ourselves up to improve it further,” he said.
Under Priority Sector, banks have disbursed an amount of Rs 3, 694.21 Crore thereby achieving 25% of target, which was considered satisfactory.
Under Agriculture Sector the banks have provided credit aggregating Rs 1, 062.10 Crore against the target of Rs 4, 669.29 Crore registering an achievement of 23%.
Commenting on performance of Banks under Kissan Credit Card Scheme, Chairman emphasized that all stakeholders should initiate immediate necessary measures to achieve 100% coverage of farmers under KCC Scheme by 30th September 2015.
Under Education Sector banks have disbursed an amount of Rs 17.84 Crore for the period under review registering a dismal achievement of 3%. This was taken seriously by the Chairman, who urged the banks to publicize the product and make it hassle-free.
Similarly Housing Sector too came up for serious discussion as it was observed that the potential of this sector needed to be exploited by ensuring speedy mechanism both at government as well as bank level. Notably, banks have disbursed credit amounting to Rs 88.76 Crore, a meagre 3% achievement.
Under Micro & Small Enterprises Sector, banks have disbursed total amount of Rs 2, 427.70 Crore during quarter under review thereby registering an achievement of 50%.
Under Non-Priority Sector, banks have disbursed Rs 2,107.03 Crore during the first quarter of current financial year thereby achieving 24% of target.
Taking a strong note of the sluggishness of pace in extending credit under government sponsored schemes, Chairman while expressing his dissatisfaction said, “Talk of inclusive growth, financial inclusion and collective empowerment looks hollow unless we start serious initiatives aimed at extending credit under government sponsored schemes for they have been designed to encourage entrepreneurship, generate employment and bring about inclusive growth”.
Pertinently, against the Annual Action Plan 2015-16 targets of Rs 195.24 Crore for all banks operating in the State, the achievement at the end of June 2015 under four major Government Sponsored Schemes, viz. NRLM, PMEGP, NULM and SC/ST/OBC is of the order of Rs 17.42 Crore thereby registering an achievement of 9% of the target.
