Bihar CM urges bankers to lend more, assures security

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the low credit deposit (CD) ratio in the state and urged bankers to disburse more loans to agriculture and MSME sectors in the current fiscal (2021-22)

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the low credit deposit (CD) ratio in the state and urged bankers to disburse more loans to agriculture and MSME sectors in the current fiscal (2021-22).

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Kumar, who was addressing the state level bankers’ committee ( SLBC) meeting attended by representatives from commercial and private banks through virtual mode, said the state’s CD ratio at 46.40% in 2020-21 was much lower than the national average of 76.5%.

“It is imperative the ratio is improved to meet the annual credit plan of ₹1,61,500 crore. Money deposited in banks in the state is going to developed states,” he said.

In 2019-20, the CD ratio stood at 43.03%, an improvement for previous years when it was below 40% in the state.

The low CD ratio has remained a sore point between the state government and bankers for several decades. While successive governments have been putting pressure on the bankers to lend more, the latter cite high rate of non-performing assets ( NPAs) or bad loans as the reason behind the reluctance of banks to give more loans.

Sources said the total NPAs till March 2021 stood at ₹20,444 crore. In 2019-20, it was ₹16,000 crore.

At the meeting, the CM told bankers to achieve the target of disbursing s ₹51,500 crore in agriculture sector and also lend more to MSMEs and medical sector ( setting up oxygen plants) and help investors keen on setting up ethanol plants as per the new policy.

Kumar also asked banks to open at least one branch at gram panchayat level so that rural population gets better banking facilities. He also reminded the bankers that their plan of opening one branch for a population of 5,000 had not been achieved so far.

The CM also urged them to lend support to over 10 lakh self- help groups in the state under Jeevika programme, a World Bank-aided rural livelihood project.

The SLBC meeting was also attended by deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad, industry minister Shahnawaj Hussain, agriculture minister Amarendra Pratap Singh and senior officials.

Law and order

The CM assured the bankers that the state government was committed to providing all possible help for security of bank premises. The assurance came after a mention of rising incidents of bank loot over the past few months.

“The government has taken prompt action in investigating cases of bank loot and made breakthrough in several cases. In the recent Hajipur case, police have made big recovery of the looted amount and several persons have been arrested,” Kumar told the bankers.