Odisha revises terms to do business with banks

Commercial banks operating in Odisha have to comply with revised terms to handle deposits and business of the state PSUs and state level autonomous societies.

In addition to key parameters like CD (credit deposit) ratio, priority sector advances and achievement under annual credit plan (ACP), the state government has factored in other criteria like financial inclusion, rural branch network and credit flow to agriculture sector to rate performance of the banks.

On the basis of the revised empanelment criteria, 17 public sector lenders, four private banks, two regional rural banks (RRBs) and the Odisha State Cooperative Bank have been found eligible to transact business with the government entities. Amongst the PSU banks, State Bank of India (SBI), Union Bank of India, Punjab National Bank (PNB), Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank, Indian Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Canara Bank, State Bank of Hyderabad, Syndicate Bank, UCO Bank and United Bank of India have fulfilled the criteria. Apart from the top three private sector lenders - ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, Karnataka Bank has made the grade.

U N Behera, additional chief secretary (finance) has written to secretaries of all departments to issue necessary instructions to PSUs under their administrative control to allow only the empanelled banks to handle government business and deposits.

The banks have been chosen on the basis of their performance across eight areas- CD ratio, achievement under ACP, branch network, ratio of rural branches network to total branches, percentage of priority sector advances to total advances, achievement under Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) scheme and progress in financial inclusion that includes deposit accounts opened and made operational on the core banking solutions.