West Bengal govt furious over banks’ reluctance to lend enhanced farm credit

Kolkata: West Bengal government is furious over the alleged reluctance of the banks operating in the state in meeting the annual credit plan for the agriculture sector in the state.

The quarterly meeting of the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) was held on December 28, the state’s principal financial adviser and the former state finance minister, Dr. Amit Mitra expressed deep anguish over the issue.

In the meeting, Mitra said that in the first six months of the running financial year of 2021-22, the banks have disbursed only Rs 27,952 crore of farm credit, which is barely 32 percent of the annual credit plan.

According to him, equally pathetic are the records for physical disbursement of Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs). Mitra pointed out in the meeting that the banks have physically disbursed 13.87 lakh KCCs, which is just 40% of the annual credit plan target of 35 lakhs.

The state agriculture secretary Onkar Singh Meena was also present at the meeting. He said that often the decisions taken at the quarterly meetings of SLBC, West Bengal, or sub-committee meetings do not reach the branch level and hence the gap between the annual credit plan and actual credit disbursements widens.

He requested the banking representatives to update the branch level officials to abide by the decisions taken in the meetings.

The banking representatives present at the meeting will look into the matter so that branch-level officials implement the decision taken at the quarterly meetings of SLBC or sub-committee meetings.

Amit Mitra was vocal against the alleged reluctance on part of the banks to extend credit under the West Bengal Students’ Credit Card scheme. He alleged the big banks, both in the public and private sector, have shown reluctance on this count.

He said that so far the banks have sanctioned only 7,000 loan applications and given provisional sanctions to another 30,000.

State Bank of India’s chief general manager, Ruma De, and the Bank of Baroda’s deputy general manager, PK Das assured the state government representatives that their boards have approved the scheme and the banks will be boarded in the scheme shortly.