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The credit requirement for the state is pegged at Rs 36,959.92 crore for 2014-15, an increase of about 13 per cent over Rs 32,648.78 crore potential indicated for 2013-14.
The total outlay for credit requirement projections is an aggregation of the Potential Linked Credit Plans for 2014-15 prepared by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) for all the districts of the state.
A State Focus Paper (SFP) with the theme, Revival, Reconstruction and Risk Mitigation, has been prepared with emphasis on the critical issues and areas requiring restoration and rehabilitation in the aftermath of the cyclone Phailin and floods.
Of the total credit plan of Rs 36,959.92 crore, agriculture has the lion’s share of Rs 19,193.12 crore, which is about 52 per cent of the total credit requirement assessed.
The sum allocated for the crop production is Rs 14,373.77 crore while Rs 4,819.35 crore has been earmarked for term loan to agriculture and allied sector. In the non-farm bracket, that includes agro and food processing and MSME (micro small and medium enterprises), Rs 4,651.76 crore has been allocated while the projections for other priority areas is pegged at Rs 13,115.04. Out of the Rs 4,651.76 crore allocated to the non-farm sector, Rs 4,297.11 crore and Rs 354.65 crore have been apportioned to MSME and agro and food processing fields respectively. However, the state government has expressed its discontentment on the Nabard’s credit projections for the state.
“It is very conservative for 2014-15. It has to be over by Rs 40,000 crore, an increase of about 16 per cent over the previous year,” said UN Behera, additional chief secretary, finance department.
“We will prepare a good credit plan when the matter comes up at the meeting of State Level Banker’s Committee,” he added.
Clarifying the stand on the credit projections for the state, SK Kale, Chief General Manager (CGM), Nabard, Odisha regional office, said that the projections are appropriate considering the low credit absorption capacity of the state.
“The trends show that the achievements in last two years is less than the targets”, he added. “Going by the past trends (where the achievement is only 70 per cent), we have reduced the credit potential for the state but still it is 13 per cent above the last year’s projections”, said the CGM.
There is a need to look into the credit absorption capacity and the infrastructure availability so that the credit can actually flow to different sectors, Kale suggested. The credit disbursed for the current fiscal is pegged at around 49 per cent till September.
