AP to form 6 sub-committees to drive growth

Hyderabad, June 29 (INN): In order to give a thrust to economic activity in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu suggested forming six sub-committees for agriculture, horticulture, livestock, fisheries, MSME and affordable housing.

These sub-committees, the Chief Minister said, will identify growth drivers in each sector and monitor how/why an entity (to which credit has been lent) is non-performing and give hand-holding until it begins performing to generate revenue.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also launched the state credit plan for 2015-16 at the State Level Bankers' Committee meeting at Secretariat today.

The proposed credit plan for 2015-16 is Rs.1,25,748 crore where agriculture has been given Rs.65,272 crore, MSMEs Rs.16,960 crore and other priority sectors at Rs14,688. The total credit for priority sector is Rs96,920 crore while non-priority sector is Rs.28,828 crore.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister directed all banks in the state to adapt interoperability which allows business correspondents of one bank to offer payment services to other lenders for better efficiency and optimisation.

'This can enable us to disburse pensions in an efficient way to people. Eventually, this will help us become a cashless economy by achieving our goal of financial inclusion,' the Chief Minister added.

Stating that the government has successfully implemented two phases under the debt redemption scheme, the Chief Minister sought banks' cooperation to ready themselves for the third phase of the roll-out.

'We've linked most of bank accounts to Aadhar. This should be carried out immediately and efficiently. We have to relieve farmers from debt-burden and make farming profitable,' he said.

The Chief Minister also said that failure in proper communication to farmers from banks has led to some confusion. 'By now, all the loans should have been renewed. I want banks to work on solving this confusion,' he added.

'Identify growth-driving sectors based on the demand, and disburse credit based on that,' the Chief Minister opined.

Suggesting banks to come up with innovative ways to generate revenue and boost economic activity to those groups they are lending to, the Chief Minister said that banks could form sub-committees at district-level/mandal-level and review how these groups are performing.

'Monitor how these groups are generating economic activity and analyse the impact. Depending on the credit given to these assets/groups, we can monitor whether they are performing well or are likely defaulters,' he added.

Stating that banks have to play a pro-active role, the Chief Minister said that state government is giving top priority to agriculture and allied activities. 'For this, we would require banks to disburse loans in a timely manner.'

Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, Regional director of RBI R.N. Dash, NABARD Chief General Manager Harish Java, Principal Secretaries, state-level bankers and members of the SLBC were present.

The major highlights of the SLBC report are: There are no unbanked mandals in the state; The total deposits outstanding at the end of March 2015 is Rs. 1,93,753 crore and outstanding advances is Rs. 2,15,797 crore with an increase of 17.25% and 7.25% respectively, over the previous year; The priority sector advances at the end of March 2015 at Rs. 1,51,482 crore. Total agricultural advances outstanding are Rs. 95,597, constituting 47.51% of total credit against the regulatory norms of 18% and the total credit outstanding under MSME sector is Rs. 32,276 crore, under education loans is Rs. 3,062 crore and housing loans is Rs. 17,424 crore.