Bhubaneswar: Vishal Kumar Dev, Principal Secretary, Finance today asked all commercial banks in the state to enhance their credit flow in the priority sectors.
While addressing at the State Credit Seminar for 2024-25 organised by NABARD, Shri Dev said that the credit flow from banks to the priority sector in Odisha though has been good so far but it still needs lot of urgent improvement and attention as the credit plan for the State should be 40 per cent of GSDP which is around Rs 3.50 lakh crore. However, the credit plan for 2024-25 is estimated around Rs 2 lakh crore.
The Principal Secretary Finance called for removal of regional disparity in the State in terms of financial services and coordinated efforts for paving way for sustained development.
He asked all Banks to achieve the set targets and increase the bar specially focusing on Agriculture and MSME.
Shri Dev further advised banks and line departments to introspect, revisit the strategies required for upscaling the credit flow and for removing the operational impediments in the growth of credit to the priority sector.
Odisha is one of the fastest growing States in India. In 2022-23, it registered a growth rate of 7.8 per cent, in comparison to 7.1 per cent at all India level. Odisha’s post-COVID growth revival is quite exemplary, officials said.
In 2021-22, the State’s GSDP grew by 11.5 per cent, while India grew by 290 basis points lower than Odisha. Odisha’s growth resilience is reflected in its average medium-term growth rate of 7.9 per cent from 2013-14 to 2021-22, leaving aside the COVID year. Odisha’s COVID recovery and resilience is demonstrated by its nominal growth in GSDP in 2021-22.
In nominal terms (growth in current price), Odisha grew by a spectacular rate of 23.5 per cent against 19.5 per cent at all India level in 2021-22. The State has consistently reported a revenue surplus and has maintained gross fiscal deficit within the threshold limit set by the FRBM Act.
However, the credit flow by banks has remained a concern in the State, the senior officials said.
As against the target of Rs 1,34,664.87 crore under the Annual Credit Plan (ACP) for the year 2022-23, an amount of Rs.1,35,720.72 crore was disbursed under various priority sectors.
Agricultural credit flow during 2022-23 was Rs 54,716.32 crore, against Rs 44,257.73 crore during the previous year, recording an increase of about 23.63 per cent.
District-wise analysis reveals that only four districts achieved less than 80 per cent of their ACP targets, the lowest being Gajapati (64.96%). Bolangir performed the best with 134.37 % achievement.
Agency-wise analysis reveals that Public Sector Banks achieved 99.62%, Private Sector Banks achieved 98.65% of ACP target, while Cooperative Banks and RRBs achieved 96.35% and 113.67% of ACP target respectively.
Share of Commercial Banks in Total Agricultural Credit was 61.58% in FY 2022-23, whereas the shares of Cooperative Banks and RRBs were 30.66% and 4.74% respectively.
In Agri-term loans, the share of Commercial banks was 96.95%, whereas the share of Cooperative Banks was only 0.45%. Under the crop loan, the share of Cooperative banks was 43.52%.
