The Hindu Business Line : `Farm credit outgo much below target in W. Bengal'

THE not-so-satisfactory flow of agriculture credit in West Bengal came up for a review at a special State-level bankers' committee (SLBC) meeting here recently.

Mr Parkash Singh, CMD of United Bank of India, the convenor bank of SLBC, presided. The senior officials of RBI, NABARD, West Bengal Government, several public sector banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks attended it.

Between April and September this year, the flow of credit amounted to Rs 1,002 crore, contributed by public sector commercial banks to the tune of Rs 686.33 crore, regional rural banks Rs 45.83 crore and cooperative banks Rs 269.83 crore.

However, the target for the whole year (2004-05) has been set at Rs 2,439 crore to be contributed by public sector commercial banks to the extent of Rs 960 crore, regional rural banks Rs 244 crore and cooperative banks Rs 1,235 crore. In other words, special effort had to be made to achieve the targeted figures, with the regional rural banks and the cooperative banks playing a more meaningful role.

The thrust on agriculture lending has assumed importance in view of the Union Government's decision to double farm credit within three years as well as to attain at least 30 per cent growth in disbursement during the current year.

However, as the bank sources point out, this year's agriculture credit outgo, so far at Rs 1,002 crore, marks a significant improvement over the year-ago period when the amount was a meagre Rs 526 crore. However, in the whole of 2003-04, the total credit flow amounted to Rs 1,357 crore against the target of Rs 2,100 crore, fulfilling 68 per cent of the target as compared to 91 per cent in 2002-03.

According to directions given by the West Bengal Government for 2004-05, there has to be an improvement in the credit-deposit ratio in rural areas.

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