The 2017-18 annual credit plan for Telangana has been unveiled with an outlay of ₹1,14,354 crore, including ₹39,752 crore for crop loan, as part of ₹80,830 crore targeted to be given as advances to the priority sector.
Ministers Eatala Rajender and Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, SBI Chief General Manager Hardayal Prasad and other officials from the State government released the annual credit plan at the State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meeting.
Although the target of ₹29,101 crore was fixed for short-term production (crop) loans for 2016-17, only ₹28,661 crore was disbursed due to delay in renewal of crop loans, particularly during the last kharif. Accordingly, against the target of ₹17,461 crore, only ₹15,205 crore was disbursed with an achievement of only 87%.
However, the gap in achieving the target was narrowed during the rabi with 115.6% achievement by disbursing ₹13,456 crore against the target of ₹11,640 crore fixed for the season. The SLBC has fixed an ambitious target this year with an increase of about ₹10,650 crore in the outlay for crop loans, including ₹23,851 crore for kharif and ₹15,901 crore for rabi.
Stating that the overall achievement of credit plan with respect to crop loans last year was over 98%, president of the SLBC, Mr. Hardayal Prasad, admitted that the bankers could have performed better in giving advances to few promising sectors. He felt that they did not reach the true potential in extending agriculture term loans as only 66.75% of the target was achieved by disbursing ₹6,495 crore out of ₹9,203 crore.
On the disbursement of crop loans this season, he said ₹2,600 crore was given so far and ₹3,850 crore out of ₹4,000 crore released by the State government as the last instalment of crop loan waiver was credited to the accounts of beneficiary farmers.
Agriculture Minister Mr. Srinivas Reddy requested the bankers to speed up disbursement of crop loans as the farming community was in need of input investment with the early monsoon rains covering many parts of the State already. “The delay in disbursement will force the farmers approach the private moneylenders and when the crop loan is actually disbursed by the bankers a sizeable amount will again reach the private lenders as they collect high interest rate up to 30% to 40% against 7% by the banks”, he explained.
