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States with high banking penetration have low share of rural and semi-urban credit, according to data from Reserve Bank of India.
As on September 2012, the gross bank credit by all scheduled commercial banks in the country was Rs 4,888,207 crore. Of this, the share of rural credit was Rs 406,255 crore, or merely 8% of the credit, data from recently released quarterly statistics on deposits and credit of scheduled commercial banks by the RBI show. The share of semi-urban credit was about 10%, while the share of urban/ metropolitan credit was about 82%.
Little surprise, informal sources of credit are predominant source of credit in rural and semi-urban areas.
Surprisingly, Maharashtra, which accounts for more than one-fourth of gross credit by banks in the country, has one of the lowest share of rural credit to total credit. The gross bank credit by banks in Maharashtra as on September 2012 was Rs 1,410,952 crore, which is about 29% of India’s gross credit. However, the share of rural credit in the whooping Rs 1,410,952 crore given by banks in the state, was just 2% each at Rs 28,998 crore.
In Delhi, the share of rural credit to total credit was even less at .87% at Rs 5,545 crore(against total credit of Rs 639209 crore.). The share of semi-urban credit was further negligible at .07%. Notably, in Delhi, out of the total area of 1483 square kms., nearly 369 square kms are designated as rural areas.
The southern states have a relatively better in rural credit disbursal. In Tamil Nadu, the share of rural credit to total credit was 9%, while that of semi-urban credit was 17%. In Andhra Pradesh, the share of rural and semi-urban credit from banks was 13 and 14% respectively.
Interestingly, of the 100189 scheduled commercial bank offices in the country, 63082 offices or 62%, are in rural and semi-urban areas.
In October 2011, the government had issued guidelines on financial inclusion, advising banks to open branches in all habitations of 5,000 or more population in under-banked districts and 10,000 or more population in other districts. By the end of April 2012, out of 3,925 such identified villages or habitations, branches were been opened in 3,402 villages area (including 2,121 Ultra Small Branches).
| Sate | Percentage of gross rural credit of total credit | Percentage of gross sem-urban credit of total credit |
| Uttar Pradesh | 23 | 14 |
| Maharashtra | 2 | 2 |
| Bihar | 33 | 25 |
| West bengal | 7 | 3 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 13 | 14 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 17 | 19 |
| Rajasthan | 15 | 16 |
| Karnataka | 11 | 10 |
| Gujarat | 8 | 10 |
| Tamil Nadu | 9 | 17 |
| New Delhi | 0.87 | 0.07 |
| In Maharashtra, 2% of state's gross bank credit for rural and semi-urban areas each |
| In Delhi, 0.87% & 0.07 % of states gross bank credit for rural and semi-urban areas respectively |
| About 62% bank offices in India are in rural and semi-urban areas |
