Bankers today expressed concern over falling credit deposit ratio, particularly in urban areas. Moreover, the poor disbursement of education loan is also a matter of concern, the bankers have said. The state level bankers’ committee has observed the rural and semi-urban areas had reported more than 66 per cent of the credit deposit (CD) ratio. “The lending rates are not likely to come down till January 2011 and bankers must focus on development loans, education loans and priority sector,” said S Sridhar, chairman of Central Bank of India, here.
Referring to the state economy, Sridhar said there was a decline of one per cent CD ratio of banks in the state over the previous quarter and this was a matter of concern. He, however, pointed out the combined CD ratio of rural and semi-urban areas stood at a satisfactory figure of 66 per cent. “Bankers should make all efforts to improve it,” he said. On education loan, he said banks are keen to meet the financial requirements of the needy students for pursuing higher education and interest subsidy scheme of the government of India and education loan guarantee scheme of the government of Madhya Pradesh will boost the trend.
Terming financial inclusion as the most important subject for banks at present, he said as many as 18,031 villages of a total 55,393 villages had undergone 100 per cent financial inclusion in the state. He urged the concerned banks to implement month-wise, village- wise plans submitted by them within the time schedule for achieving total financial inclusion in the state by the stipulated date.
The committee observed 91 new bank branches have been added in the state in the first six months of the current financial year. The aggregate deposits of the banks grew by Rs 4,672 crore and stood at Rs 134,939 crore at a growth rate of 3.58 per cent. The total advances, however, recorded a marginal growth of only 0.24 per cent and stood at Rs 79,449 crore of which priority sector had a share of 64 per cent and agriculture advances formed 38 per cent of the total credit.
