Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Apr 08, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Apr 08, 2004 |
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Money & Banking
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Agricultural Institutions Nabard refinancing up despite ample liquidity Our Bureau
Ms Ranjana Kumar, Chairperson, Nabard, with Mr Y.S.P.Thorat, MD, at a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday. — Paul Noronha
Mumbai , April 7 THE agricultural refinance institution, Nabard, has registered a marginal increase in refinance to commercial banks to Rs 1,714.70 crore for the year ended March 2004 up from Rs 1,241.54 crore in the previous year. This is despite the over Rs 50,000 crore of daily surplus liquidity in the banking system. Large chunk of these funds have been availed by commercial banks to finance rural housing (Rs 821.65 crore), farm mechanisation (Rs 827.43 crore), two-wheeler loans, setting up of agri-export zones and cold storages among others. Rural housing is an area of interest to banks particularly, private sector giant, ICICI Bank since this portfolio helps it comply with priority sector lending norms. The total refinance by Nabard to commercial banks, RRBs, state co-operative banks, primary urban co-operative banks and other agencies increased to Rs 7,600.50 crore for the year ended March 2004 (Rs 7,418.77 crore). ``We will give banks the option to prepay past loans which have been availed at over 7 per cent without any penalty clause provided the institution takes an equivalent amount at the prevailing refinance rate at 5.5 per cent,'' said Ms Ranjana Kumar, Chairperson, Nabard, at a press conference here on Wednesday. ``We will also offer options to reset interest for the financially weak institutions such as the co-operative structure in the country,'' she said. Nabard (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) has a surplus of Rs 1,523 crore this year, down from Rs 1,570 crore in the previous year. The bank mobilised resources worth Rs 7,834 crore this year from the debt markets (Rs 2,971 crore). Nabard, which has entered into co-financing arrangements with as many as 11 commercial banks, is yet to finance its maiden co-financing. Nabard which is the nodal agency for micro-finance and kisan credit cards, said the micro-finance effort in India, the largest in the world had disbursed amounts worth Rs 3,240 crore to 9.42 lakh groups and 14 million poor families. The operating profit of Nabard after provisions and tax stood at Rs 1,147 crore (Rs 1,106 crore).
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