Finance minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary asks bankers to increase Bihar credit-deposit ratio

PATNA: The state's credit-deposit (CD) ratio has increased to an all-time high of 54.25% till now, recorded at the end of December during the current financial year.
While this transpired at the joint 83rd and 84th meeting of the state level bankers' committee (SLBC) meeting held on Saturday, finance minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary asked the bankers to increase the loaning activities rather liberally, so that the state's CD ratio reaches the national average of around 75%.
Choudhary also asked the bankers to fulfil the 100 per cent loan disbursement target worth Rs2.04 lakh crore under annual credit plan (ACP) ending March 31 in the current fiscal year. Till December last year, loan worth Rs1.58 lakh crore -- 77.88% of the target -- had been achieved.
The minister said the proposed ACP target for the 2023-24 financial year has been fixed at Rs2.63 lakh crore, which is more than Rs2.61 lakh crore budgetary expenditure for the same fiscal. He said the loan disbursement done under the ACP for 2023-24 and the estimated budgetary expenditure during the same fiscal together would ensure Rs5.25 lakh crore of money flow into the state.
While the loan disbursement for micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) was fixed at Rs70,000 crore as part of the ACP for the current fiscal, as much as Rs44,121 crore -- or 63.03% of the target -- had been disbursed.
Choudhary asked the bankers to also make smooth delivery of loans to those willing to establish industrial units and launch startups.
It was found at the SLBC review meeting that the quantum of loans had fallen in the agriculture sector under such heads as livestock rearing, fishery and poultry activities, among others. The bankers were asked to increase the amount and loaning activities in the agriculture sector.
Among those who participated in the SLBC meeting were industry minister Sameer Kumar Mahaseth, additional chief secretary for finance S Siddharth, industry department principal secretary Sandip Kumar Pondrik, joint secretary in Union finance ministry Bhushan Kumar Singh, RBI regional director Sanjeev Dayal, Nabard CGM Sunil Kumar and SBI CGM Shiv Om Dikshit.