Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday announced Rs 1,10,945 crore annual credit plan for the 2012-13 fiscal with a targeted lending of Rs 82,167 crore to the priority sector, including Rs 52,972 crore for agriculture and allied activities.
Releasing the 2012-13 annual credit plan at the State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting at Jubilee Hall, the Chief Minister directed the banks to increase the ‘scale of finance’ by 15-20 per cent this year.
Though the 2011-12 credit plan showed an overall achievement of 107.45 per cent in respect of total priority sector lending, majority of it went to the agriculture and allied sectors while ‘other priority sectors’ like housing got only 70.33 per cent of the targeted credit.
Under the new annual credit plan 2012-13, it is targeted to lend a sum of Rs 37,128 crore as crop loans for Kharif and Rabi seasons.
The SLBC, for the first time, has earmarked Rs 2,000 crore exclusively for lending to licensed cultivators (tenant farmers) in tune with a legislation passed by the state Assembly.
About 1.98 lakh tenant farmers got Rs 393 crore as loan from commercial banks last year, leaving the government displeased as it issued loan eligibility cards (LECs) to 5.76 lakh farmers.
According to Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, the state government is seeking to issue LECs to 12 lakh farmers this year.
Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana was highly critical of the banks over the disbursal of crop loans.
“The state government declared 870 mandals as drought-hit last year but rescheduling of crop loans has not been done so far. As such, farmers are unable to avail of fresh credit. We want the banks to extend the deadline till August 31 and complete the rescheduling,” he said.
Chief Minister kiran Kumar Reddy said that the farmers would have to repay only the principal loan amount to banks while the government would pay the interest component on loans up to Rs one lakh taken in Kharif season.
SLBC president and Andhra Bank Chairman and Managing Director B A Prabhakar expressed concern over the growing non-performing assets (NPAs).
Prabhakar pointed out the NPAs rate was increasing mainly in segments like agriculture, housing, education and government-sponsored schemes. The gross NPAs in the state as on March 31, 2012 stood at Rs 13,800 crore, he said.
He felt “There is a need to reduce the NPAs through sustained and collective efforts by bankers and government machinery in view of the high credit-deposit ratio and declining profitability.”
Ministers Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, V Sunita Laxma Reddy, Dokka Manikya Varaprasad, Chief Secretary Pankaj Dwivedi and top officials of different commercial banks attended.
(INN)