SBI, 4 others fail to meet target

NEW DELHI, Oct 17: State Bank of India (SBI) is among the five public sector banks which have failed to fulfil priority sector obligation...

NEW DELHI, Oct 17: State Bank of India (SBI) is among the five public sector banks which have failed to fulfil priority sector obligations for the year ending March 1998.

According to the data compiled by the finance ministry, apart from SBI, the public sector banks which failed to reach the priority sector target of 40 per cent of the net bank credit for the last financial year include State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad, Uco Bank and Allahabad Bank. The other 22 public sector banks have managed to fulfil priority sector obligations as stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The priority sector advances of the SBI at the end of 1997-98 worked out to be 37.46 per cent of the net bank credit as opposed to the required 40 per cent. In fact what is more distressing in the case of SBI is that the priority sector advances as percentage of total credit deteriorated as compared to 38.30 per cent in the previous financial year. The worst performer in this regard turned out to be Allahabad Bankwhich could manage priority sector advances to the tune of only 36.10 per cent followed by Uco Bank (37.28 per cent) and State Bank of Hyderabad (37.60). State Bank of Patiala was very near the target having achieved priority sector advances of 39.88 per cent.

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The banks which did very well in with regard to priority sector advances are State Bank of Travancore (57.99 per cent), Canara Bank (48.57 per cent), Bank of India (48.27 per cent), Bank of Baroda (46.86 per cent), Union Bank of India (46.16 per cent) and State Bank of Indore (45.22 per cent).The overall performance of the public sector banks was above the stipulated mark of 40 per cent. The actual lending to this sector from all banks was 41.85 per cent at the end of March 1998.

Within the priority sector advances, credit towards agriculture sector, in percentage terms, declined to 15.72 % for the year ending March 1998 from 16.53% at the end of March 1997. This was much below the stipulated target of 18 per cent. However, in absolute terms,agriculture advances, went up to Rs 34,304 crore at the end of March 1998 from Rs 31,013 crore in the previous fiscal. The worst performers, as far as agriculture lending was concerned, were Central Bank of India (10.99 %), Corporation Bank (11.56%), State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (12.66 %), Punjab National Bank (13.08 %), Allahabad Bank (13.25 %) and Uco Bank (13.35%).

Among those banks which have done well in this regard and managed to achieve the sub target of 18 % of the net bank credit, include State Bank of Travancore (21.40 %), Canara Bank (20.25 %), Oriental Bank of Commerce (20.02 per cent), Indian Bank (19.21 per cent), Indian Overseas Bank (19.12 per cent), Bank of India (18.46 per cent) and Andhra Bank (18.28 per cent).