J&K Bank has once again surfaced as the dominant credit player in J&K. The bank has the largest share of Rs.12,173.65 crore (71%) of the aggregiate outstanding credit of banking sector of Rs.17,117.66 crore in the J&K state at the end of March 2010. While as the two major banks of the country State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have contributed just 8 and 5 percent respectively to the outstanding credit portfolio.
This was stated today at the 79th State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting held here at SKICC. The meeting was presided over by Dr.Haseeb A Drabu, Chairman and Chief Executive of J&K Bank.
Besides, the Bank has over-achieved its targets by 106% by surpassing the Annual Credit Plan (ACP) goal of Rs.904 Crore with a credit flow of Rs.1861.65 Crore to priority sector. Here too, the share of J&K Bank alone in the total credit flow to priority sector during the year 2009-10 is quite outstanding at 70% as against the residual 30% contribution by all other banks operating in the State taken together.
Notably, under ACP 2009-10, bank were given a target of Rs.2301.30 crore for 183548 beneficiaries and at the end of March 2010, the banks disbursed Rs.2667.16 crore to 140168 beneficiaries. Thus, achieving 116 per cent of the given target.
Expressing displeasure over the poor performance and lackadaisical attitude of the other banks operating in the state in terms of credit disbursement to priority sector, Dr Drabu has offered to sell 500 crore portfolio to other banks to help them ramp up their priority sector credit dispensation volumes.
"If other banks operating in the state of Jammu & Kashmir are facing problems in lending to the priority sector, J&K Bank, to give comfort to them, is ready to sell 500 crore of its credit portfolio", Dr. Drabu, who was speaking on the occasion as convener State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC, J&K).
Stating that the offer was on non-reciprocal basis, Dr. Drabu insisted that if the other major banks operating in the state were ready to respond to his offer, J&K Bank would work for identifying fresh areas to lend in the priority sector. "And I assure you that the J&K Bank would still be there at the top", he said.
.Giving details Dr. Drabu revealed that during FY 2009-10 J&K Bank has been a major contributor to the achievements under almost all the sectors. Under agriculture sector an amount of Rs.546.81 Crore have been disbursed to 52,223 beneficiaries against the annual target of Rs.544.90 Crore for 1,11,812 beneficiaries thereby achieving 100% in financial and 47% in physical target. The J&K Bank alone has disbursed Rs.402.50 Crore thereby achieving 168% of its ACP target of 240.29 Crore, which constitutes 74% of the total achievement by all banks in the State.
Dr Drabu stated that the status of sponsored schemes has been a little encouraging as compared to the previous years with banks disbursing an amount of Rs. 164.36 Crore to 13,842 beneficiaries constituting an achievement of 55% and 51% in financial and physical terms respectively. He, however, asked the sponsoring agencies to work towards improvement of the quality of sponsorships.
Under SMEs sector out of the total disbursement of Rs. 585.45 Crore (77% achievement) against an annual target of Rs.759.30 Crore for all participating banks, J&K Bank alone has disbursed Rs.346.01 Crore against the target of Rs.302.34 Crore thereby achieving a financial target of 114%, which constitutes 59% of the total achievement by all banks in the State.
Similarly, under Micro Credit sector, out of the total disbursement of Rs.292.55 Crore (84% achievement) against the annual target of Rs.349.52 Crore for all banks, J&K Bank alone has disbursed Rs.205.29 Crore, thereby achieving 194% of its annual ACP target of Rs.105.68 Crore, which constitutes 70% of the total achievement by all banks in the State.
Taking serious note of the absence of heads of some important government departments and expressing concern over less credit disbursement to priority sector by banks barring J&K Bank, S S Kapoor, Chief Secretary, J&K Government assured the banks of all possible help from the government.
Reacting to the constraint that the banks were facing due to non-applicability of the SARFEASI Act to the state of J&K, Kapoor informed the gathering that the state government had already taken up the issue with the Central Government to work out the possibilities of making the law consistent to legal and constitutional frameworkof J&K. Calling for urgency in setting up of Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs), Kapoor asked the concerned government department to expedite allotment of suitable land at all the district locations. "To translate the idea of encouraging entrepreneurship, we need to train people. Hence the need to set up RSETIs in the state calls for urgency from all quarters", Kapoor emphasized.
The meeting was attended by A.K Mehta, Executive Director, J&K Bank, Samir K. Sinha, Director, Department of Financial Services, GoI, MoF (Nodal Officer for J&K), Iqbal Khanday, Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production, Arnob Roy, Regional Director, RBI, heads of various government departments, Presidents of J&K Bank, representatives of NABARD (J&K), development agencies, banks and financial institutions operating in the state.
The meeting also took a thematic discussion on implementation of Kissan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme in J&K State with the objective of ensuring that the scheme is successfully implemented in the State and substantial progress is achieved. It was observed that though in other States of the country there has been a substantial performance under KCC Scheme but in J&K State the performance has not been quite satisfactory. Therefore, the constraints faced in the successful implementation of the said scheme were deliberated upon and a number of corrective measures were suggested in the meeting