Annual Credit Plan fixed at Rs 1.33 lakh cr

• CM calls for speedy disbursal of loans to priority sectors
• Seeks bank accounts for all farmers
• Says Aadhaar linkage should be speeded up
• Urges crop loans at 7% as fixed by Centre

Hyderabad: The State government has fixed the Annual Credit Plan at Rs 1,33,074 crore for the current financial year. This includes Rs 99,894 crore for priority sector inclusive of Rs 67,224 crore for agriculture, and Rs 33,180 crore for non-priority sector. Disclosing this at the 181st State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting here on Tuesday, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy asked the bankers to immediately open bank accounts for all farmers so that benefits like input subsidy etc could be transferred to their accounts directly without any delay.

B A Prabakar, President of the SLBC and CMD of Andhra Bank, said that the banks surpassed the targets under Annual Action Plan for 2012-13. As against the target of Rs 37,128 crore, the achievement was Rs 50,157 crore which worked out to 135%. An amount of Rs 23,491 cr was disbursed under agricultural term loans against the target of Rs15,844 crore, an achievement of 148%. He said the total disbursements under agriculture credit during the year (2012-13) was Rs73,648 crore against the target of Rs 52,972 crore, an achievement of 139%. Under MSE sector, banks disbursed Rs 11,255 crore during 2012-13 against the projection of Rs 9,343 crore, and the achievement thereof was 120%. Congratulating the bankers for surpassing the targets for the Annual Credit Plan 2012-13, particularly for the agriculture sector, the Chief Minister urged the bankers to continue their cooperation and repeat the performance this fiscal as well. Kiran Reddy called upon the bankers to issue input subsidy to farmers without any link to previous dues or adjustments. He said the input subsidy would serve as the much-needed capital for next crop and the State government had substantially increased it. He said banks would also have to substantially increase loans for self-employment since the State government decided to provide self-employment to 6 lakh youth with an outlay of Rs 2,000 crore this year. Expressing unhappiness over the delay in passing on the benefits meant for the farmers, Kiran Reddy said that the government increased the input subsidy from Rs 4,500 to Rs 10,000 per hectare, which was being paid online directly to individual beneficiaries. However, though the government had released Rs1,800 crore for the purpose, only Rs 1,400 crore was disbursed. This is because the banks could not open bank accounts. He also said banks should cooperate in linking banks accounts to Aadhaar. As the State is poised to be number one in implementing development and welfare programmes, banks should gear up for a big role in making this a reality. He regretted that delay in granting loans was bringing a bad name to the government. He said it was unfortunate that the bankers could only cover 43 per cent of SCs and 13 per cent of STs as against the target disbursal of Rs 2,000 crore under employment guarantee scheme. Manjeera Grameena Bank in Sidhipet and Deccan Grameena Bank in Adilabad district were demanding interest payments and not opening accounts. The banks should accept Mee seva certificates for loans. Kiran said that recently the Centre had decided to apply normal crop loan rates (7%) to rescheduled crop loans in the calamity-affected (like drought, cyclone, floods) mandals. He wanted the bankers to strictly adhere to the norms and help the farmers in distress. The State government also announced 'vaddileni runalu' (interest-free loans) for SHG women and this would improve repayment by them. In this regard, he urged the bankers to substantially increase loans for SHGs as well as women entrepreneurs as the government would open exclusive industrial parks for women in each district. He also asked the bankers to give priority to Minorities, Small & Medium Entrepreneurs, food processing industry and IKP women. They should also extend their cooperation in the successful running of schemes like 'Amma Hastham,' and meet the needs of fair price shop dealers for working loans etc. Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, Women and Child Development Minister Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, Rural Development Minister Manikya Vara Prasad asked the banks to extend loans to farmers liberally.