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Commercial banks have surpassed the annual national target for agricultural credit by 28 per cent during 2016-17 while all other categories of banks underperformed, according to the RBI.
The overall flow of credit to the agricultural sector, however, has exceeded the target at ₹10.658 lakh crore against the target of ₹9 lakh crore.
In 2015-16, the target was ₹8.5 lakh crore while total disbursal was ₹9.15 lakh crore, the RBI said in its annual report for 2016-17.
In FY17, the performance in total priority sector lending was flat in public sector banks at ₹19.89 lakh crore against ₹19.85 lakh crore in the previous year.
In private sector banks, however, this went up to ₹7.11 lakh crore from ₹6.48 lakh crore, according to the report.
Priority sector loans include small-value loans to farmers for agriculture and allied activities, MSMEs, to the poor for housing, and education loans. Social infrastructure and renewable energy are also eligible categories under this category.
An important development during 2016-17 was the launch of priority sector lending certificates scheme as a mechanism to incentivise banks having a surplus to lend to different categories of the priority sector.
A platform to enable trading in the certificates has been provided by the RBI through its core banking portal e-Kuber.
“The PSLC platform recorded active participation from all eligible entities, including urban cooperative banks and small finance banks, during 2016-17,” the report said.
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