During the year 2011-12, banks performance for the overall credit plan stood at 107.45 pecent, and they have done well crossing the targets set in the areas of Agricultural Credit, SHG bank linkage and SME segments, claimed the State Level Banking Committee (SLBC) of Andhra Pradesh president and Andhra Bank Chairman and Managing Director BA Prabhakar. He has said that the out lay of State Credit Plan proposed for the year 2012-13 under the priority sectors is at Rs.82,167crores with Rs.52,972 crores under Agriculture sector, Rs.9,343 crores under SME sector and Rs.19,852 crores under other priority sector. Under Non Priority sector, Rs.28,778 crores is proposed, taking total outlay of State Credit Plan to Rs.1,10,945 crores duing the current year.
Addressing the 178th SLBC meeting held at Jubilee Hall here on Tuesday, Prabhakar said that the outstanding Agricultural Credit as on March 31, 2012 has crossed the one lakh crore mark and stood at Rs.1,01,690 crores. The disbursements during the year 2011-12 were Rs.58,511 crores against the target of Rs.48,000 crores, which is at 121.90 percent.
He said that under Self Help Group (SHG) bank linkage program, banks have extended finance to 3,52,708 lakh rural SHGs with total credit of Rs.8,079 crores and 85,046 urban SHGs with total credit of Rs.1,756 crores. The total achievement is 100.13 percent of the overall target of Rs.9822 crores. The outstanding under SHG bank linkage program at Rs.15,548crores continues to be highest in the country.
He said that with the directions of the Central Government and Reserve Bank, many initiatives are launched like coverage of all the villages with 2000 and above population by providing necessary banking services enabling the resident of a particular village to meet all his banking needs without moving out of the village. Banks have since covered 6640 villages in the state under FIP till March 31, 2012.
He said that few of the branches especially in upland or agency areas were shifted/closed on grounds of security. RBI has given a list of few such centres in East Godavari district recently-Maredumilli, Y.Ramavaram, Addatheegala, Devipatnam, Rayapalli and Gangavaram. SLBC has advised LDMs to ensure opening of branches and send early confirmation. It is high time that new branches are opened at these centers and banking services extended to the under privileged sections.
He said that under the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected coverage, 16 districts in the state were identified. The Union Ministry of Finance has directed for drawing specific action plans for development of these districts. This includes expanding the banking activity by providing alternate banking channels, promotion of Women SHGs through Anchor NGOs, etc. SERP has indicated to promote 14,490 Women SHGs in these districts during current year. (NSS)