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Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 9

Non-resident deposits have staged a strong comeback with commercial banks in Kerala witnessing a flow of an additional Rs 1,976 crore during the first quarter of the financial year.

This took the cumulative deposits to Rs 31,865 crore, capping a year-long declining trend, according to records made available at the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meeting held here recently.

The surge in NRI deposits was the most striking feature of the banks’ performance during the first quarter, an SLBC spokesman said.

Total deposits and advances have grown at 15.04 per cent and 17.16 per cent respectively during 2007-08 to cross the milestones of Rs 1 lakh crore in under deposits and Rs 75,000 crore under advances by March 2008.

Commercial banks disbursed Rs 6,401 crore to the priority sector during the first quarter of the 2008-09 fiscal. This is 17.68 per cent of the targeted amount for the whole year.

Out of the disbursement target for 2008-09, Rs 15,972 crore was earmarked for agriculture, Rs 3,134 crore for the SME sector and Rs 17,268 crore for other priority sectors.

The credit-deposit ratio stood at 70.16 per cent as on June 2008 against the mandatory minimum of 60 per cent fixed by the Reserve Bank.

The SLBC is all set to spearhead a techno-savvy programme for payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and various social security payments through a smart-card enabled system by involving banks.

Being implemented on a pilot basis, it is called ‘IT-enabled financial inclusion programme’ and is being monitored by the RBI with the involvement of Government departments, Nabard and lead banks in three districts.

More Stories on : Fixed Deposits | NRIs

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