Jammu: J&K Bank on Thursday convened 107th meeting of J&K State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) here at the conference centre of Hotel Radisson Blu, Jammu. The meeting was presided over by B. B. Vyas, Chief Secretary J&K Government. Other prominent dignitaries who attended the meeting included Financial Commissioner, Housing & Urban Development Department K. B. Aggarwal, Financial Commissioner Revenue Lokesh Dutt Jha, Principal Secretary Finance Navin Kumar Chaudhary, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India Thomas Mathew, Chief General Manager NABARD Vijay Kumar, Deputy Secretary, DFS, MoF, GoI A. K. Dogra, other senior functionaries of the State Government, banks, Insurance Companies, BSNL etc.
Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, representative of Divisional Commissioner Jammu and the Deputy Commissioners of all the districts also joined the meeting, few in person and remaining through Vedio conferencing.
Chairman, J&K Bank (Convener, J&K SLBC) Parvez Ahmed expressed his gratitude to the Chief Secretary for his well formed efforts to resolve various outstanding issues like allotment of land to RSETIs & FTCs, grant of exemption on stamp duty upto Rs.3.00 lakh on loans to SHGs/JLGs promoted by NABARD, etc.He Thanked the Chief Secretary for resolving large number of long pending issues of the forum and initiating well founded programmes to accelerate the resolutions.”The practice of integration of various stakeholders through video conferencing and other innovative initiatives by Chief Secretary are praiseworthy”, he said.
Briefing the House about the performance highlights, J&K Bank Chairman cum CEO and Convenor J&K SLBC, Parvez Ahmed said, “Banks operating in the State have extended a total credit of Rs.17,188.19 Crore in favour of 5,66,424 beneficiaries during the first three quarters of CFY ended 31st December, 2017 against annual target of Rs.28,841.64 Crore for 9,66,047 beneficiaries under Annual Credit Plan 2017-18, thereby registering achievement of 60% in financial terms and 59% in physical terms.
This includes Priority Sector credit of Rs.9,224.79 Crore disbursed in favour of 3,46,456 beneficiaries against the annual target of Rs.19,933.02 Crore for 7,40,847beneficiaries (constituting 46% achievement in financial terms) and Non-priority sector credit of Rs.7,963.40 Crore disbursed in favour of 2,19,968 beneficiaries against annual target of Rs.8,908.62 Crore for 2,25,200 beneficiaries (constituting achievement of 89% in financial terms).
Notably, J&K Bank alone has disbursed Rs.12,319.61 Crore during the period under review, which makes for 72 pc of the total credit extended by the 43 banks and financial institutions operating in the State.
Commenting on the performance of banks in Government Sponsored Schemes (GSS) in the State, Parvez Ahmed said that against the Annual Action Plan 2017-18 target of Rs.539.40 Crore for 21,951 beneficiaries for all banks operating in the State, the achievement of banks under four major sponsored schemes viz. NRLM, PMEGP NULM and SC/ST/OBC stood at Rs.178.07 Crore for 8,035 beneficiaries in all the three regions of the State thereby achieving 33 pc of the target in financial terms and 37 pc in physical terms.
Performance under some major sub-sectors of Priority Sector:
Under Agriculture Sector the banks have provided credit aggregating Rs.4,295.52 Crore in favour of 2,25,552 beneficiaries upto 31st December 2017 thus registering an achievement of 56% in financial terms.
Under Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Sector, banks have disbursed total amount of Rs.3,816.77 Crore in favour of 93,039 beneficiaries thereby registering an achievement of 51% in financial terms.
Under Education Sector banks have disbursed an amount of Rs.107.85 Crore in favour of 5,375 beneficiaries registering an achievement of 24% in financial terms.
Under Housing Sector, banks have disbursed credit amounting to Rs.763.34 Crore in favour of 11,915 beneficiaries thereby registering an achievement of 29% in financial terms.
In order to facilitate dispensation of credit through mortgage loans and boost credit deployment to Housing and Education sectors, Chief Secretary directed all the Deputy Commissioners to complete the process of digitization of land records in a time bound manner.
Taking note of aggregate Credit Deposit Ratio of 49% of the State, the Chief Secretary directed all the stakeholders to work in a coordinated manner to ensure that Credit Deposit Ratio of 60% as prescribed by Governor, Reserve Bank of India, is achieved by the end of March, 2018. He also directed the Deputy Commissioners of the districts having CD Ratio less than 40%, to formulate necessary strategies so that the CD Ratio of these districts is substantially improved.
All concerned banks/ Government agencies were advised to operationalize all their designated branches/ centers for Aadhaar enrolment-cum-updation facility immediately. Banks were also directed to expedite the process of seeding of Aadhaar in bank accounts well before 31st March, 2018, so that people are not put to any inconvenience on this account.
House noted that 100% coverage of farmers under KCC Scheme has already been completed in Kashmir Division, but in Jammu division there is a pendency of 49000 cases. Chief Secretary emphasized that all the stakeholders should put in strenuous efforts to ensure that the process of 100% coverage is completed immediately in Jammu Division also.
Expressing concern that EBT Scheme has so far been implemented in only 16 districts of the State for IGNOAPS, all the stakeholders were directed to ensure that the process of validation of accounts in the remaining six districts of Budgam, Anantnag, Kulgam, Poonch, Reasi and Kathua is completed expeditiously, so that the entire State is brought under the ambit of EBT Scheme.
Principal Secretary Finance Navin Kumar Chowdhary emphasized that the targets set under the Annual Credit Plan should be in synchronization with the available potential. In this regard a Sub-Committee under the Chairmanship of Chief General Manager NABARD was constituted to finalize and approve the Annual Credit Plan for J&K State for FY 2018-19 so that the same is launched for implementation across the State w.e.f. April, 2018.
Chief Secretary impressed upon the banks and other agencies to work in tandem for economic upliftment of the J&K State, so that people of the State in general and the underprivileged sections of the society in particular are benefitted. He emphasized that while pursuing the targets allocated under the Annual Credit Plan, banks should focus more on achievement of targets under Priority Sector.
