The Hindu Business Line : Separate credit plan for SMEs in AP chalked out

In a bid to focus on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the State-Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) has devised a dedicated credit plan with a size of Rs 13,000 crore for the year 2006-07.

The SME plan, released as part of the over all credit plan for the State, has allocated Rs 5,717 crore for the SSI sector, while earmarking the remaining Rs 7,283 crore for the medium enterprises.

Speaking on the salient features of the SME plan, Mr A.L. Nageswara Rao, Convener of SLBC and General Manager of Andhra Bank, said the plan was prepared in tune with the Reserve Bank of India's advice to SLBCs on increased credit flow to SMEs.

Referring to the September 2005 meeting at the RBI headquarters in Mumbai, he said the advisory committee wanted the SLBCs to review the position of credit flow to SMEs and formulate a region specific plan of action.

It also wanted interactions with SSI associations and bankers to resolve bottlenecks that came in the way of enhanced credit flow to the SME sector.

As a follow up of the Mumbai meeting, the SLBC convened a meeting with bankers and SSI associations in December last and discussed various issues related to the credit flow to SMEs.

The Lead District Managers were asked to prepare a separate plan for SME sector along with the regular credit plan for the respective districts.

The plan break-up

The SME credit plan for 2006-07 has two components - small-scale industries (SSI) and medium enterprises. In the SSI sector, handlooms segment would get Rs 435 crore, while village industries would get Rs 425 crore and rural artisans Rs 485 crore. The other SSI ventures would get Rs 4,372 crore.

In the medium enterprises segment, assistance to rice mills was pegged at Rs 1,092 crore. The other important segments that got significant allocations included electricals and electronics (Rs 947 crore), cement industry (Rs 947 crore), engineering and steel products (Rs 874 crore) and pharmaceuticals (Rs 801 crore).

Of the 23 districts, Hyderabad stood first with Rs 2,880 crore of the total plan size of Rs 13,000 crore. Hyderabad was followed by Rangareddy with Rs 1,140.58 crore and Nalgonda with Rs 942 crore.

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