The scheduled and unscheduled load relief for more than six hours in Andhra Pradesh and nearly 12 hours in Tamil Nadu is seriously affecting productivity of the industrial sector. In addition, revision of lending rate 13 times in a year by the Reserve Bank of India has dealt a severe blow to the sector, State Bank of Hyderabad Managing Director M. Bhagavantha Rao has said.
Speaking to The Hindu here on Sunday, ahead of the bank's Executive Committee meeting on Monday, Mr. Rao said with the repaying capacity of entrepreneurs hit hard, the bank was making efforts to reschedule and restructure their loans so that the gross non-performing assets would come down.
Currently, out of the Rs.2,100 crore Gross NPA of the SBH, major industries contribute 25 per cent, small and medium enterprise 35 per cent, retail borrowers 20 per cent, and agriculture 20 per cent taking the total to 3 per cent of the gross advances currently pegged at Rs.74,500 crore, he observed.
The bank is doing a business of Rs.1,73,000 crore with deposits of Rs.98,500 crore. The meeting in Vijayawada is the second one to be organised out of the headquarters. The first was organised in Visakhapatnam three months ago and the next is proposed in Tirupati in June.
“This provides scope for bank directors and committee members to interact with customers and local bank officials, and approve some high-value loans and staff matters,” Mr. Bhagavantha Rao said.
SBH is the only bank to complete the full quota of priority lending and 18 per cent agriculture lending by December. But some government-sponsored beneficiaries, defaulting on repayment, are pushing up the NPA and the bank is unable to do anything on this count.
Huge response
Expressing happiness at the huge response to the special two-day deposit drive for women on the occasion of the International Women's Day, he said the bank had 5 lakh mobile banking customers out of 25 lakh Savings Bank account holders. In 2012-13, it would concentrate on increasing this further, he said.
About 85 per cent of withdrawals (below Rs.40,000) has already shifted to ATMs. The bank has opened 300 new branches in two years and proposes to open 175 more during 2012-13 and 40 during this month.
