Chandigarh, August 11: As commercial, regional rural and cooperative banks await the debt relief scheme of the Punjab Government, agriculture loans to farmers has fallen short of the target. This indicates the shift of source of agriculture credit to non-institutional sources of finance.
In the first quarter of this fiscal, the target of commercial banks was short by 23 per cent and those of cooperative banks by 31 per cent.
Commercial banks have lent Rs 3,639 crore less than their target, while cooperative banks have lent Rs 2,270 crore less. With the non-performing accounts (NPA) in the agriculture sector having increased to 7.06 per cent, it has raised the hackles of the government and bankers alike.
Over the past few months, bankers have been resenting the drastic fall in agriculture loans recoveries. Thus, exercising caution, banks seem to have reduced lending to farmers.
So, representatives of banks operating in the state today requested Principal Secretary (Finance) Anirudh Tewari to quickly implement the scheme so that they can recover the advances given to farmers.
“Please decide on the debt relief scheme soon so as to save banks,” said PS Chauhan, convener of the Punjab State-level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), during a meeting here today.
Data collected by the SLBC brought out that in terms of crop loan — loan given to farmers in each crop cycle — lending is short by Rs 6,536 crore against a target of Rs 26,700 crore.
Commercial banks have lent Rs 4,387 crore less than the target; cooperative banks, Rs 2,585 crore; and Punjab Agriculture Development Bank, Rs 69 crore.
Bankers hinted that they were well within their right to recover loans from defaulting farmers, but said they were going slow so that the government could roll out its scheme.
Principal Secretary Tewari, who chaired the meeting, told The Tribune that the government was expecting to receive the report of the T Haque committee next week. “We are trying to raise money to repay farmer loans at the earliest. The debt relief scheme will be notified soon,” he added.
Source: Tribune India
