Telangana Dy CM Bhatti unhappy over delay in farm loan waiver by bankers

Hyderabad: Expressing his displeasure over the delay in waiving off farm loans of the farmers, deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka said that though the state government has released Rs 18,000 crore to the banks, only loans amounting to Rs 7,500 crore were waived off by the banks.

During the 42nd state-level bankers’ first quarter review meeting held at Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan on Tuesday, August 20, Vikramarka urged the bankers to work with concern, and not to confine themselves merely to statistics and calculations.

Observing that micro, small and medium-scale enterprises were generating maximum employment, he urged the bankers to sanction loans heavily to those industries.

He also sought bankers’ help in giving interest-free loans to self-help groups under the ‘Indira Mahila Shakti Scheme’ for the empowerment of women entrepreneurs, adding that the state government planned to give one lakh crore interest-free loans to SHGs in the next five years.

He expressed happiness over the encouraging performance of the banks in the first quarter of the financial year 2024-25 towards advances to the priority sectors. Appreciating the bankers, he said that in the first quarter itself, 40.62% of the annual credit plan for the priority sectors was achieved.

He hoped that bankers would exceed the set targets for credit plan in the coming quarter of the financial year.

Some important numbers presented by bankers at the SLBC meeting

• Total deposits increased by Rs 2,005 crore in the first quarter, with total deposits in all banks standing at Rs 7,81,959 crore.
• Total advances increased by Rs 16,289 crore, with total advances in all banks being Rs 9,95,348 crore.
• The cash deposit (CD) ratio was pegged above 100%, increasing from 125.53% to 127.29%.
• Short-term production loans for Kharif were Rs 17,383 crore in the first quarter, which was 35.56% of the target set for the financial year.
• Banks disbursed Rs 23,848 crore as investment credit to agriculture, its allied sectors and agri-infrastructure by the first quarter, achieving 45.65% of the target for the financial year.
• Banks disbursed Rs 220.49 crore for educational loans and Rs 984.34 crore for housing loans under priority sector lending.
• Banks disbursed Rs 57,079 crore as loans for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) segment, achieving 44.03% of the target for the financial year by the first quarter.
• Banks sanctioned Rs 1,987 crore under PM Mudra Yojna, which was 21.49% of its annual target.
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• Under the Agri-infrastructure fund, banks sanctioned Rs 2,811 crore out of their accumulated target of Rs 3,200 crore this financial year.
• Under the PM Swanidhi scheme, out of 6,85,879 applications received in three tranches, 6,76,891 vendors received loans.