| The bank expects the total business to rise by 26 per cent during the current fiscal. The bank last year had a total business of Rs 151 crore, out of which deposits were Rs 99.70 crore and advances were Rs 51.57 crore. |
| The bank recorded Rs 151.27-crore total business in 2003-04, a growth of 22.85 per cent over Rs 123.13 crore in 2002-03. |
| During 2003-04, deposits increased by 21 per cent to Rs 99.7 crore from Rs 82.72 crore. Advances grew by 27.6 per cent to Rs 51.57 crore from Rs 40.41 crore. It posted a net profit of Rs 3.51 crore, a growth of 65 per cent over Rs 2.13 crore 2002-03. |
| "This year the focus is on micro irrigation programmes for which we are disbursing Rs 14 crore. There is a talk that the Congress government may announce a 90 per cent subsidy on the scheme. If that happens, we will have to revise our strategies," T Rajaram Babu, chairman of Golconda Grameena Bank, told Business Standard. |
| The bank is planning to increase the priority sector loans by about Rs 3 crore to Rs 41 crore. Last year, the bank sanctioned Rs 38.18 crore as priority sector loans. |
| "The Rs 41-crore target includes even the annual increase in deposits which according to estimates would be around 21 per cent. So in all respects, we expect to reach the target that we have set," he added. |
| Babu said that the bank launched housing loans. "When we started banking operations in 1985 in Ranga Reddy district areas like Kukatpally, Uppal and Ramachandrapuram were mainly agriculture areas. But later these areas have merged with the city, and the development activities have caught on. The only way to expand our business is to look at giving housing loans etc at a concessional rate as compared with commercial banks," he said. |
| Babu said that the bank would not hesitate to give housing loans at an interest rate between 8.5 to 9 per cent if it got a good proposal. At present, the bank gives housing loans at an interest rate of 10-12 per cent. |
| The bank, however, does not have any immediate plans to expand its loan portfolio to new sectors. |
| "We are not looking at other areas like educational loans or vehicle loans where the rate of interest may not be viable for us," the bank's chairman said. The bank at present offers loans at a maximum interest rate of 14 per cent. The bank has a total of 23 branches of which eight have been fully computerised. Another six branches will be computerised this year. |
| "We hope to computerise all our branches by March 2005. The investment in the computerisation programme is approximately Rs 4 lakh per branch," Babu said. |
| On the non-performing assets (NPAs), he said the bank reduced its gross NPAs to 9.36 per cent in 2003-04 from 16 per cent in the previous fiscal. It also brought down the net NPAs to 6.32 per cent from 10.88 per cent. The bank plans to reduce the gross NPAs to four per cent and net NPAs to two per cent during the current fiscal. |
| "We have been organising several recovery camps since September last. We have also ensured that no new accounts are added to the NPA list," he said. |
| This has helped us prune the NPA portfolio. This year we will stick to the same plan and will start early to achieve the targets set for the current financial year," Babu said. |
| "The good monsoon last year has also helped us in NPA recovery and we hope the same to happen this year too," he added. The bank wrote off loans worth Rs 18 lakh in 2003-04 as compared to Rs 33 lakh in the year before. |
| During the last financial year, the bank tied up with SBI Life Insurance Company to sell insurance products in its branches. |
| According to Babu, the bank is targetting around 10,000 policies and a commission of around Rs 20-25 lakh during the current financial year. |
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