| In the current financial year Rs 12,343 crore is expected to be disbursed by banks as agricultural credit as against a total allocation of Rs 14,188 crore. The disbursement is higher on account of the relief measures that were carried out in the drought-hit regions of the state. In the last financial year only Rs 9,019 crore was disbursed against a target of Rs 12,129 crore. |
| For the nine month period ended December 31, 2004, banks have met 71 per cent of the total target and have cumulatively disbursed Rs 9,999.37 crore as agricultural credit. |
| "Last year out of the total target, Rs 9,019 crore was disbursed and this year we expect the increase to come because of relief measures in the drought hit regions of the state," A L Nageswara Rao, convenor of the state-level bankers' committee (SLBC) and general manager of Andhra Bank, told Business Standard. |
| There are 6,048 bank branches in the state of which 4,258 are rural and semi-urban branches, representing 70.4 per cent of the total branches in the state. |
| He said that against the target of 4,19,400 new farmers to be extended credit to (at 100 new farmers per rural or semi-urban branch), banks have extended finance to 7,95,845 new eligible farmers at an outlay of Rs 1,593 crore, representing a 188 per cent increase over the targeted number. |
| For the first nine months of the current financial year, the agriculture loans from banks in the state increased 28.46 per cent to Rs 9,999.37 crore as compared to Rs 7,783.86 crore last year. |
| Out of the total advances, lending from commercial banks increased 37.21 per cent to Rs 6,345.96 crore (Rs 4,625.02 crore), followed by Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) where lending recorded a growth of 55.06 per cent to Rs 1,811.9 crore (Rs 1,168.53 crore). |
| But there was a 7.48 per cent drop in the lending by the cooperative banks to Rs 1,841.51 crore (Rs 1,990.31 crore). "The disbursements by the cooperative banks has been slow because of the paucity of funds," Rao said. |
| Banks have rescheduled accounts of all the eligible farmers and fresh crop loans were extended. Till the end of December 31, 2004, Rs 1,675.38 crore covering 8.30 lakh farmers, which accounts for 95 per cent of all the eligible farmers, have been rescheduled. |
| The banks, in the state, have also met the stipulated norms of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) towards the priority sector and agricultural advances. |
| According to Rao, the priority sector advances was at Rs 43,006 crore constituting 63.62 per cent of net bank credit against the stipulated norm of 40 per cent and the outstanding agricultural advances was at Rs 19,826 crore, contributing 29.33 per cent of net bank credit against the RBI norm of 18 per cent. |
| During the current rabi season, banks have disbursed Rs 1,925 crore under crop loans, achieving the 46 per cent of target of Rs 4,219 crore. The rabi season in the state is up to the end of the March. |
| Banks during the kharif season issued 7.87 lakh new kisan credit cards taking the total number of kisan credit cards to 64.51 lakh cards. |
| According to him out of the total credit outlay, under the credit plan 2004-05, of Rs 23,479.20 crore towards the priority sector, Rs 16,523 crore has been disbursed till the end of December 31, 2004. |
| "We expect the disbursements to be around 95 per cent by the end of the current financial year as compared to 89 per cent disbursed last year. Out of the total allocation of Rs 20,000 crore, Rs 17,937 crore was disbursed," Rao said. |
| He also said that till the end of December 31, 2004, loans of women borrowers was at Rs 5,000 crore, an increase of 10 per cent from March which was at Rs 4,534 crore. |
| "This is around 12.34 per cent of total priority sector advances which is above the RBI norm of 5 per cent of net bank credit," Rao said. |
| The credit story "� so far |
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