SBI Vizag zone eyes 80% growth in net profits

State Bank of India (SBI), Visakhapatnam zone, is expecting more than 80 per cent growth in net profits, which is likely to touch the Rs 120-crore mark this fiscal.

The zone, which comprises of 197 branches in the four coastal districts "� Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and East Godavari "� posted a net profit of Rs 63.73 crore last fiscal.

"The zone earned a net profit of Rs 43.06 crore in the first half of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 28.64 crore in the last fiscal's corresponding period, thus posting a growth of 50 per cent. With our low and no-cost deposits increasing significantly, besides an increase in our business as well as our income on interests, we have been taking up several cost-cutting measures almost in all our branches. Owing to this, we expect our net profit to touch Rs 117-120 crore this fiscal," Supriyo Kumar Chaudhuri, deputy general manager of SBI, Vizag zone, told Business Standard.

"The zone collected new deposits to the tune of Rs 315 crore last fiscal of which low and no-cost deposits accounted for 38 per cent. Of the Rs 126 crore worth of new deposits that we collected in the first half of the current fiscal, the low and no-cost deposits were 42 per cent. We are targeting to collect Rs 484 crore new deposits this fiscal," he said.

Chaudhuri said that the zone has been laying more emphasis on opening new accounts this fiscal.

"The zone has opened only 58,000 new savings and current accounts last fiscal. Up to October this year, we have opened around 1,10,000 new accounts. We plan to open another 60,000 new accounts by the end of this fiscal," he said.

"We have reduced the cost of deposits to 4.7 per cent by the end of September this year as compared to 5.53 per cent last fiscal. The zone's net NPA has also come down to 2.48 per cent by the end of September as compared to 3.45 per cent last fiscal. The bank has also issued notices to 1,000 defaulters under the Securitisation Act involving an amount of Rs 53 crore. Due to this, our net NPA is coming down gradually," Chaudhuri said.

SBI Vizag zone has so far conducted around 600 gram sabhas across the four districts.

"With this efforts, our agricultural lending went up significantly, and a number of new accounts are being opened at our SBI rural branches. Last fiscal, we have sanctioned agricultural loans to the tune of Rs 79.35 crore, whereas we sanctioned Rs 111 crore worth of agricultural loans in the first half of the current fiscal," Chaudhuri said.

"We are aiming at sanctioning Rs 480 crore of agricultural advances this fiscal," he said.

In the first half of the current fiscal, we have given advances to the tune of Rs 111 crore to the agricultural sector, Rs 176 crore to the personal segment and Rs 124 crore as home loans," he said.

"At present, the zone has 197 fully-computerised branches. We plan to open eight more branches by the end of the current fiscal. Of the eight branches, five will be opened in Visakhapatnam. We also plan to add 26 more ATMs to the existing 64 ATMs across the four districts by the end of this fiscal. Apart from these, the core banking facility will be expanded to another 14 branches from the existing four branches in the zone while the interned banking facility will be extended to expanded to another 14 branches from the existing 31 branches, by the end of this fiscal," Chaudhuri said.