Chief Secy urges banks to ramp up lending for increased economic activity

Jammu, Mar 30: Saying that credit contraction is a big drag on growing economy like J&K, the Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta Wednesday asked the banks to ramp up lending to enable J&K to keep up the ongoing growth momentum.
He said that rising tourist arrivals and plummeting unemployment rate would start showing results, if banks loosen credit squeeze to pump prime the J&K’s economy.
Dr. Mehta was speaking in the 6th meeting of J&K UTLBC, which was attended by Financial Commissioner Finance, Atal Dulloo, Principal Secretary, HUDD, Dheeraj Gupta, Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary, Principal Secretary, I&C, Ranjan Prakash Thakur, MD & CEO, J&K Bank ( Convenor J&K UTLBC) Baldev Parkash, Director, DFS, MoF (GoI) A.K. Dogra, Regional Director, RBI, Kamal P Patnaik, Chief General Manager NABARD, A. K. Sood and other senior functionaries of the Government, RBI, NABARD, Banks, LDMs, line departments, insurance companies and the representative of BSNL.
The Chief Secretary said that banks need to urgently move towards accepting and processing loan applications online for efficiency and transparency.
While appreciating J&K Bank for launching a portal for real time tracking of credit applications under government sponsored schemes, he informed that a common portal for receiving and processing applications under all government sponsored schemes will soon be developed and integrated with all the banks operating in the J&K.
He said, “This will resolve all the concerns relating to delays in the processing of loan applications by different banks”.
The Chief Secretary directed the UTLBC convener to ensure that J&K is saturated with the bank branches/banking correspondents as per DFS norms before 15th April, 2022.
Dr. Mehta directed Agriculture Secretary, Industries & Commerce Secretary, UTLBC Convener and Regional Director, RBI to prepare an actionable export/financial road map for ‘one district – one product’ scheme by 15th of April, 2022.
Saying that priority sector lending is an important social obligation of the banks, the Chief Secretary directed the banks against insisting upon the collaterals where it is not required under norms and operate within the ambit of the RBI norms/GOI schemes in the course of processing of loan requests.
Earlier Executive President, Sunil Gupta while making presentation on the financial achievements of various banks in different sectors during the third quarter of the current fiscal year informed that Agriculture and MSME sectors have performed well in the priority sector lending.
It was informed that against 14,932 cases sanctioned under PMEGP during the last year, 24135 cases have already been sanctioned ending February, 2022 during the current financial year.
Similarly, against 10,155 cases sanctioned under NRLM during the last year,14,448 cases have been sanctioned ending February, 2022 during the current financial year.
Sunil informed that 1443 cases under MUMKIN scheme have been sanctioned and disbursed as on 16th March, 2022.
Against 29,146 cases sanctioned under various employment generation schemes during the last year, 46,569 cases have already been sanctioned ending February, 2022 during the ongoing financial year.
It was further informed that 28,763 KCCs (crop) and 25,593 KCC (AH) have been issued ending Jan 2022 during the current financial year and near saturation has been achieved in respect of KCC.
Against the target of holding 651 financial literacy camps, 1040 financial literacy camps have been organized ending December 2021 during the current financial year.
Sunil further said that the aggregate CD ratio in J&K has increased from 50.67 % as on 31.03.2019to 56.57 % as on 31.12.2021.
NRLM (1.60%) and PMEGP (1.90%) were reported to have the lowest non-performing assets under major government sector schemes.
Saying that the social security is at the heart of the welfare effort of the government, the Chief Secretary directed for saturation of PMSBY, PMJJBY, PMJDY and APY before 15th April, 2022.
He directed the banks to increase lending to SC/ST/OBC and crafts persons to help improve their socio-economic conditions on sustained basis.
Dr. Mehta informed that J&K’s performance under PM svanidhi is amongst the best in the country and directed the banks to expedite disbursal of 2nd instalment under PM svanidhi to the eligible beneficiaries.
Dr. Mehta directed the banks to launch financial literacy campaigns in J&K, especially in far off areas including in educational institutions.
Holding financial literacy as an important step towards financial inclusion, he laid emphasis on sensitizing the people through media campaigns, erecting hoardings etc. at conspicuous places about benefits of various financial inclusion, social security and government sponsored schemes so that more and more beneficiaries can take advantage of these schemes.