…And excess funds flow on

Bank cash counters were kept busy like never before in the last three months. The fourth quarter of the just concluded fiscal saw a 150 pc jump in deposit mobilisation by banks over the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal.

This shows a shift in preference to remain liquid in the election year. The high-voltage performance of the equity market also has a role in bank’s high deposits growth. In the fourth quarter of 2003-04, commercial banks garnered a massive Rs 1,13,264 crore by way of time and demand deposits, as compared to Rs 45,219 crore in 2002-03. In March 2004 alone, banks mobilised Rs 55,982 crore, almost half of the amount mobilised in the fourth quarter of 2003-04 and compared to Rs 26,706 crore in March 2003.

This is reflected in growth in demand deposits which, at the end of the fiscal 2003-04, stood at Rs 51,904 crore (Rs 18,734 crore). The share of term deposits up to three-year maturity to the total term-deposits was at 71.2 pc in 2001-02 as against 68.3 pc in 2000-01 and 67.1 pc 1999-2000, according to RBI’s statistical tables relating to banks in India 2002-03.

In the fiscal, total deposit mobilisation stood at Rs 2,21,291 crore (Rs 1,80,573 crore). Time-deposits stood at Rs 1,69,387 crore (Rs 1,61,840 crore).