J&K Bank today convened the 104thState Level Bankers' Committee meeting here at SKICC, which was presided over by J&K Chief Secretary Bharat Bhushan Vyas.

Briefing the house on the occasion J&K Bank Chairman & CEO and Convener JKSLBC Parvez Ahmed said, “The banks operating in J&K have extended total credit of Rs 16802.34 Cr to 553975 beneficiaries under Priority as well as Non-priority sector during the FY 2016-17 against annual target of Rs 27649.47 Cr for 1242750beneficiaries under Annual Credit Plan (ACP) 2016-17, thereby registering an achievement of 45 percent (pc) in physical terms and 61 pc in financial terms.”

This includes Priority Sector credit of Rs 9331.49 Crdisbursed in favour of 355838 beneficiaries against the annual target of Rs 18267.84 Cr for 939363 beneficiaries (constituting 51 pc achievement in financial terms) and Non-priority sector credit of Rs 7470.85 Cr disbursed in favour of 198137 beneficiaries against annual target of Rs 9381.63 Cr for 303387 beneficiaries (constituting achievement of 80 pc in financial terms).

Notably, J&K Bank alone has disbursed Rs 11906.37 Cr, which makes for 71 pc of the total credit extended by the 46 banks and financial institutions operating in the State.
The meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner Revenue Lokesh Dutt Jha, Commissioner/Secretary Finance Navin Kumar Chaudhary, Commissioner/Secretary Housing & Urban Development Hirdesh Kumar, Regional Director Reserve Bank of India N K Sahu, Chief General Manager NABARD Vijay Kumar, other senior functionaries of the State Government, banks, representatives of insurance companies and BSNL.

On the occasion Chairman and CEO Parvez Ahmed expressed his gratitude to the Chief Secretary for having consented to chair the 104th SLBC. Along with Regional Director RBI, he also felicitated the Chief Secretary by presenting him a Kashmiri Shawl as a token of affection. “I am confident of having greater value additions to the house under the able guidance of the chief secretary,” said Parvez Ahmed.

In his presidential remarks, Chief Secretary B B Vyas thanked the Convener SLBC and the house for felicitation on his elevation as the Chief Secretary of J&K.  

He emphasized upon the role of banks in J&K as extremely important particularly as the state is passing through a rather difficult phase.

Commenting upon the lending of banks he said, “Our priority should be on the focus areas like pushing the Credit Deposit Ratio up to that of 60%, the target given by the RBI Chief. It is a task where we are lagging behind and we need to gear up and work together to achieve this.”

Citing the engagement of youth in remunerative enterprises, Chief Secretary urged the bankers to launch a concerted campaign.

He said, “A different way of financial inclusion through association and integration of youth needs to be implemented. Skilled enterprises and new business activities must be driven by the young women and men of the state who are exceptionally gifted and talented. It is for financial institutions to channelize and galvanize their energy and put them on some very remunerative kind of enterprise. I assure complete support from the government whenever and wherever you need.”

In spirit of cooperation to move forward, Chief Secretary suggested the SLBC for better appreciation of the targets and their realisation.

He urged the house to set smaller targets and then achieve them.

Chief Secretary also pointed out that despite having huge potential, the credit offtake under Housing and Education Sectors has remained abysmally low. He impressed upon the banks to put in concerted efforts so that credit disbursements under these sectors is substantially improved. 

In order to address the issue, a Sub-Committee was constituted which will be chaired by the chief secretary along with commissioner secretary, Finance department, chairman J&K Bank and senior functionaries from the state government and major banks, The sub committee would look into the impediments in the way of smooth disbursement of credit under Housing and Education Sectors and also to draw the roadmap for creating awareness among the masses about the Education and Housing Schemes of banks.

Earlier, commenting on the performance of banks in Government Sponsored Schemes (GSS) in the State, Chairman Parvez Ahmed said that against the Annual Action Plan 2016-17 target of Rs 201.88 Cr for 9991beneficiaries for all banks operating in the State, the achievement of banks under four major sponsored schemes viz. NRLM, PMEGP NULM and SC/ST/OBC stood at Rs 136.89 Cr for 7508 beneficiaries in all the three regions of the State thereby achieving 68 pc of the target in financial terms.

Breaking the priority sector further into sub-sectoral achievement of targets, he said, “86 pc of the targets have been achieved in Agriculture, 50 pc in MSME, 63 pc in Export Credit, 49 pc in Renewable Energy and 18 pc in other segments.”

“Looking at the credit dispensation across three regions of the state, we have achieved 69 pc of targets in Kashmir, 50 pc in Jammu and 100 pc in Ladakh”, he said.
The chairman was quick to add: “As compared to the annual credit plan (ACP) achievements of 31% during the first three quarters, there was a considerable push in credit disbursement during the last quarter of FY 2016-17 which alone accounts for 30% ACP achievement.”

Commenting upon the dismal performance in numbers under Housing and Education finance, which is only 17 pcand 12 pc respectively, Chairman Parvez Ahmed remarked, “We must concede that it is our collective focus on all the three regions of the state, especially under the buckets with lower credit dispensation like Housing and Education, which we can leverage to move ahead with greater zeal for better returns.”

Regarding Credit Deposit ratio (CDR), Chairman said, “Due to huge surge in deposits because of Demonetisation coupled with very low credit off-take, the CDR in the state dipped considerably from 49.11 pc from 31st March 2016 to 44.63 pc on March 31, 2017.”

“However, the situation has improved considerably after impact of demonetization has subsided, I am optimistic that all the banks in the state will put in their efforts to improve CD Ratio and achieve the targets as prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India”, he said.

He emphasized upon the need for addressing the issue of subdued C.D. Ratio in the state and advised the banks to initiate necessary measures for substantially improving the same.
On digital banking, Chairman remarked, “As Aadhaar and mobile are prime constituents of digital India, banks have focused on seeding each and every account with both the components. So far 56 pc of the individual operative accounts have been seeded with mobile numbers and 36 pc of the total Aadhaar generated in the state have been seeded to the respective bank accounts.”

“The banks are working in tandem with the government and have actively participated in the “Digidhan melas” organized by the state government to embrace the latest technology for promoting digital banking system”, he added.

Regarding Financial Inclusion, Chairman Parvez Ahmed informed the house that the SLBC has initiated implementation of the new RBI directive of opening Brick & Mortar branches in the villages having population above 5000 where under 104 villages have been identified and allocated to 8 major banks.

He expressed hope that the banks would be able to meet the targets well within the stipulated timeline by using the revised policy guidelines issued by the RBI.

Making important interventions during the meeting Commissioner Secretary Finance Naveen Kumar Chowdhary urged banks with large presence besides J&K Bank to push their lending figures up in the state.

Responding to a question about setting up of the farmer training centers he said, “We have taken up the matter with deputy commissioners of Pulwama and Kathua districts and the land has been identified.”

The house finally decided that the PNB would open the Farmers’ Training Center in Kathua, while as J&K Bank would start the FTC at Pulwama.

Commenting upon the insertion of few chapters on financial inclusion in the academic syllabus he said, “We have handed over the literature to the JK BOSE authorities and certain chapters will be included in different classes for next academic session.”

Apprising about the digitization of the revenue records Commissioner Secretary Lokesh Dutt Jha said, “The progress is going on in Jammu division as well as in Kashmir division. But I think the timelines, earlier set for March 2018 for Jammu and Srinagar divisions, are going to be revised because of various interruptions which have taken place. The service provider has been told to complete the process tehsil wise. However, it is a massive task where a few crore documents are scanned, processed and digitized which should be appreciated but whatever part is completed we will at least try to get that operational.”

Chief General Manager NABARD Vijay Kumar and Regional Director RBI N K Sahu also made some insightful observations during the meeting and added useful inputs to the deliberations in the house.  

Concluding the meeting, Convener SLBC Parvez Ahmed urged the bankers, senior government functionaries and others present on the occasion to cooperate in order to synergize the workings of different institutions so that collective goals of financial growth and development can be achieved across the state smoothly.