Punjab banks achieve credit targets for 2006-07

Banks in Punjab achieved overall as well as sectoral targets under annual credit plan 2006-07.

Till March, 2007, the banks have disbursed loans to the tune of Rs 28,824 crore against the target of Rs 26,367 crore, thus registering 109 per cent achievement.

Under agriculture and allied sectors, the target achievement is 104 per cent. Similarly, the achievement under small scale industry (SSI) sector is 104 per cent and 112 under priority sector.

Addressing the bankers in the 100th Meeting of State Level Bankers' Committee (Punjab), Punjab National Bank chairman and managing director, K C Chakrabarty told that 144 new branches of commercial banks were opened in the state during the review period (April 06-March 07), thus raising the network to 2,899 as at March, 2007.

He further told that the aggregate deposits of the banks registered growth of 18.2 per cent. The deposits increased by Rs 13,276 crore from Rs 73,083 crore to Rs. 86,359 crore during the review period.

The gross credit in the state witnessed growth of 31.3 per cent as against increase of 23.5 per cent during the corresponding period last year, increasing by Rs 14,176 crore from Rs 45,308 crore to Rs 59,484 crore during the period.

The overall credit-deposit (CD) ratio increased by 6.9 percentage points from 62.0 per cent as at March, 2006 to 68.9 per cent as at March, 2007. It is for the fifth consecutive quarter that overall CD ratio has remained above the national goal of 60 per cent.

The incremental CD ratio during the period under review is 106.8 per cent. Also, the credit plus investment to deposit ratio as at March 2007 is 70.1 per cent.

The priority sector advances in the state as at March, 2007 stood at Rs 30,858 crore, showing a growth of 25.6 per cent as against 18.7 per cent during corresponding period last year.

Agriculture advances increased from Rs 11,594 crore to Rs 14,121 crore showing a growth of 21.8 per cent, Chakrabarty said.

SSI advances increased from Rs 5,947 crore to Rs 7,765 crore showing a growth of 30.6 per cent as against an increase of 15.5 per cent during the same period last year.

Banks in Punjab up to March, 2007 provided assistance to 81,721 small and medium enterprise (SME) units amounting to Rs11,120 crore.