Bhubaneswar: Despite repeated instructions from the State Government, the commercial banks in Odisha have poorly performed in disbursement of education and housing loans.
According to official data, by June end, the banks have been able to achieve within 9 per cent of the total annual credit plan target set for the current financial year 2023-24.
Against the annual target of Rs 1,153.35 crore, the banks disbursed only Rs 102.36 crore (8.88%) of education loans to the needy students till June end. However, the achievement made during the same period of previous financial year stood at 12.79%.
Similarly, under the housing loan sector, the banks disbursed Rs 592.42 crore credit to the customers till June end against the annual target of Rs 6,614.50 crore. So, the achievement stood at 8.96% against last year’s achievement of 8.72%.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the poor performance by the banks, Finance Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha, during the last State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meeting, pulled upon the banks. He urged all banks to focus more on credit flow to key social sectors.
He highlighted the increased target set under the Annual Credit Plan (ACP) in response to growing credit demands across various sectors of the economy. For the current financial year 2023-24, the ACP target is set at Rs. 1.60 lakh crores, a 19.02% increase over the previous year’s target of Rs. 1.34 lakh crores.
As of June 2023, banks have achieved 28.70% of the ACP target, and he urged controlling heads to maintain this momentum and achieve 100% of the current year ACP target, as done in previous year
Shri Arukha noted that the Credit Deposit Ratio (CD ratio) had increased to 81.44% as of June 30, 2023, from 80.77% as on March 31, 2023. He encouraged all banks to continue their efforts to ensure the well-being of the state’s residents.
Emphasizing the importance of financial inclusion, the Minister said that around 65% of Gram Panchayats out of 6,798 did not have physical brick & mortar branches.
To address this, the State Government is going to launch the CSP Plus project in collaboration with six public sector banks, with the aim of providing banking services in all unbanked Gram Panchayats through CSP Plus banking outlets. This initiative would significantly contribute to financial inclusion and boost economic activities in rural areas, he added.
The Finance Minister stressed the need for timely and adequate credit to Self Help Groups (SHGs) to meet their working capital requirements and facilitate their transformation from SHG to SME.
