J&K Bank today convened the 100thState Level Bankers’ Committee meeting at Jammu, which was presided over by J&K Chief Secretary B R Sharma.Briefing the house on the occasion J&K Bank Chairman & CEO and Convener JKSLBC Mushtaq Ahmad said, “The banks operating in J&K have extended credit of Rs 10847.22 Cr to 308609 beneficiaries up to Q3 of Current Financial Year (CFY) thereby registering an achievement of 46 pc of the Annual Credit Plan (ACP) target in financial terms.”“J&K Bank alone has disbursed Rs 6958.76 Cr to164268 beneficiaries, which accounts for 64 pc of the total credit disbursed by all banks and financial institutions operating in the state during the said period”, he added.“The total credit extended by all the banks includes Priority Sector credit of Rs 6659.11 Cr disbursed to227512 beneficiaries, which is 45 pc achievement in financial terms against the target of Rs 14804.83 Crbesides Non-priority Sector credit of Rs 4188.10 Cr, which is 48 pc achievement in financial terms against the target of Rs 8800.40 Cr”, he said.
The centenary SLBC meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner, Planning & Development B B Vyas, Commissioner Secretary Finance, Naveen Chowdary, Commissioner/Secretary, Housing & Urban Development Bipul Pathak, Commissioner Secretary Industries & Commerce, Shailendra Kumar, Commissioner/ Secretary Agriculture Production M A Bukhari, Secretary, Social Welfare Department Sanjeev Verma, Regional Director, RBI D. Sethy and Chief General Manager, NABARD Shankar A Panday besides other senior functionaries of banks, state government departments, RBI, NABARD, SIDBI, BSNL, UIDAI, developmental agencies and representatives of various insurance companies.
Earlier, in his presidential remarks, Chief Secretary B R Sharma appreciated the manifold increase in the credit portfolio of the state during the last two decades and emphasized for further improvement in the credit dispensation.Commenting on the achievement of 46% of targets during the first 3 quarters of CFY, he stressed upon the need to analyze the factors responsible for low credit disbursement in the State.He emphasized upon the need for addressing the issue of subdued C.D. Ratio in various districts of the state and advised the banks to initiate necessary measures for substantially improving the same.
Expressing pleasure over holding of the 100th meeting, Convener SLBC Mushtaq Ahmad said that the economic scenario of the J&K State has undergone a sea change during the last 2 decades.Presenting the comparative figures of the banking scenario of the State for the last two decades he stated that number of bank branches had gone up from 853 to 1960; total deposits of the banking sector have grown from Rs 3735.08 Cr to Rs 81895.02 Cr; total advances in the state have increased from Rs 1510.84 Cr to 41015.33 Cr while as advances to priority sector have shot up to Rs 20912.33 Cr from Rs 477.42 Cr; the size of ACP of the State in the year 1995 used to be just Rs 190.52 Cr and now ACP for FY 2015-16 stood at Rs 23605.23 Cr.“The banks still have to do a lot more”, he added.
On financial inclusion, Chairman J&K Bank stated that after successful accomplishment of Phase-I and Phase-II of the Financial Inclusion Plan J&K SLBC has recently started implementation of new RBI initiative of opening bank branches in identified 104 villages having population more than 5000, which are without a branch of any Scheduled Commercial Bank.Commenting on performance of Banks under Kisan Credit Card scheme, he stated that 95 pc of the target has already been achieved with 9.35 lac KCCs issued by the banking sector till December 31, 2015.Regarding performance under Government Sponsored Schemes (GSS), he said that against ACP target of Rs 126.98 Cr the banks have disbursed Rs 54.65 Cr under three major GSS at the end of December 31, 2015 thereby registering an achievement of only 43 pc.
Expressing serious concern on the poor performance under GSS, Convener SLBC urged the banks and concerned sponsoring agencies to introspect and identify the impediments in achieving the desired targets under the schemes meant for upliftment of unprivileged segments of the society.Chairman further stated Annual Credit Plan for the next FY 2016-17 has been worked out at Rs 27649.47 Cr as compared to CFY’s Plan Rs 23605.23 Cr envisaging a growth of 17 pc.“While preparing it, the target of 55 pc CD Ratio set by RBI for scheduled commercial banks operating in J&K State to be achieved by the end of FY 2016-17 has duly been taken care of”, he added.The said Annual Credit Plan for FY 2016-17 was approved by the house for implementation in the state and banks and other agencies were advised to put in strenuous efforts to achieve the ACP targets.Earlier, Regional Director (RBI) D Sethy stressed upon the banks to take necessary measures for improving the credit dispensation in the State in order to ensure that Credit Deposit Ratio of the State is increased to the benchmark of 60% by 31st March, 2018.Chief General Manager, NABARD Shankar A Panday stressed the need for implementation of Area Development Schemes devised by NABARD in order to improve credit flow in the State with special focus on rural areas. (KNS)