SBI Vijayawada nets Rs 74cr up to Q3 this fiscal

State Bank of India (SBI) Vijayawada zone, comprising 187 branches in the Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts, clocked a net profit of Rs 74 crore for the three quarters of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 38.37 crore that it achieved in the entire last fiscal.

The zone's deposits increased by Rs 140 crore and advances by Rs 520 crore in the three quarters of the current fiscal, with deposits standing at Rs 2,379 crore and advances at Rs 2,389 crore at the end of the third quarter. The zone's deposits stood at Rs 2,061 crore and advances at Rs 1,561crore at the end previous fiscal.

Speaking to Business Standard, NV Suryanarayana Rao, deputy general manager of the bank, said: "Lending in priority sectors such as agriculture, small industries and business, housing, education and export finance had formed 69 per cent of the total advances as against the RBI norm of 40 per cent. The bank had already crossed the annual budget of Rs 145 crore allocated for agriculture and stood at 33 per cent of total advances as against the RBI norm of 18 per cent."

He said that the crop loans totalling Rs 108.15 crore given to 41,371 farmers in drought-hit areas have been converted to term loans. "The branches identified 36,760 new farmers in the same areas and advanced loans amounting to Rs 122.81 crore.

Isukapalli branch gave the highest number of loans to 1,400 farmers. The bank had already given loans totalling Rs 205 crore to 67,500 farmers under schemes such as Kisan Credit Cards, Kisan Gold Cards, Dairy Plus and farm mechanisation," he said.

"The bank sanctioned housing loans to the tune of Rs 133 crore to 4,400 borrowers, and 1,225 poor students were given educational loans to the tune of Rs 33 crore for pursuing studies in India and abroad," he added.

Rao said the bank, for the first time in the state, extended loans up to Rs 23 lakh to 230 handloom weavers after listing them into 23 self-help groups (SHG) at Mangalagiri.

"The branches at Nallagerla, Ganapavaram, Elamanchili disbursed above Rs 1 crore each to self-help groups. The Nizampatnam branch stood first in giving loans to highest number of 300 self-help groups (Rs 1.09 crore). The same branch grouped the tsunami victims into 133 SHGs and disbursed Rs 69.00 lakh to them," he said.

The bank's lending to small scale industries stood at Rs 203 crore while it lent Rs 116 crore to small business finance. Farmers were also sanctioned Rs 22 lakh for constructing lift irrigation schemes and 44 of them were given Rs 22 lakh for providing drip irrigation to banana gardens. Its branches executed 517 community service programmes, including medical camps, and donated 17 computers to schools and colleges.

"We would be adding 13 more ATMs to the present 52 ATMs in the zone. The online business set up in 15 branches is also attracting customers on a large scale and four more branches would go online soon," Rao said.