VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday said that he urged bankers to focus on disbursing agriculture term loans and providing Kisan Credit Cards to the farmers who didn't receive them yet.
The Chief Minister said tenant farmers should get loans and banking services at 4,240 Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBK) and urged the banks to complete them very soon.
The Chief Minister, addressing 217 State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) on Tuesday, urged the bankers to provide Rs 35,000 as a loan at three per cent interest to women for the housing scheme and also asked them to focus on providing loans for TIDCO houses.
He said 1.78 lakh out of 8.3 lakh MSME accounts were restructured and urged the banks to support them with one-time restructuring of their loan
accounts.
The Chief Minister said the momentum of the country's economic recovery is picking up and the GDP growth rate for the second quarter of the financial year has registered at 8.4 per cent and the overall growth rate for the first half has been 13.7 per cent.
Expressing apprehension about the third wave of Covid pandemic due to the Omicron variant, the Chief Minister said the economy is slated for a boost otherwise. He, however, hoped that the possibility of the third wave of Covid would have a low impact on the economy.
The Chief Minister said the importance of credit growth can't be over-emphasised at this juncture and the national-level bank credit of scheduled commercial banks to that Rs 112 lakh crores on November 5, 2021, demonstrating a growth rate of 7.1 per cent, which is good.
He said the burden of Rs 30,000 crore was laid on the state government due to the Covid pandemic and that the state government was able to alleviate the situation with the cooperation of the banking sector and thanked the bankers for their support.
Jagan Mohan Reddy said the annual loan plan of banks was Rs 2,83,380 crore, of which 60.53 per cent which is Rs 1,71,520 crore was disbursed in the first six months alone. Similarly, the annual loan target for priority sectors was Rs 2,13,560 crore, of which 47.29 per cent which is Rs 1,00,990 crore, was disbursed by banks in the first six months of this year and congratulated the banks for their support.
The Chief Minister said Rs 12,243 crore is required for setting up 16 medical and 16 nursing colleges across the state, and urged the banks to support the state government with loans. He requested the bankers to set up ATMs at Village Secretariats and RBKs. The bankers said they would set up ATMs at some locations as a pilot project and extend later.
Union Bank MD and CEO and SLBC president Raj Kiran Rai lauded the welfare initiatives of the government and assured support from bankers.
SLBC convenor V. Barhmananda Reddy said farmers are being benefited as the state government has been paying timely interest for loans under the 'YSR Sunna Vaddi' scheme and added that the activity of banking has been increased due to the initiatives of the state government.
