Loan disbursement under education and housing loan portfolios declined in the State during 2015–16 and 2016–17, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said.
After releasing the annual credit plan of the State for 2017–18 at the State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meting here on Thursday, he said targets as per the annual credit plan had not been achieved under housing and education sectors in the last two years.
“When we expect growth year after year with preparation of such annual credit plans, I find that the disbursement under housing loan portfolio, which is a national priority, has declined from ₹9,061 crore in 2015–16 to ₹5,916 crore in 2016–17,” he said.
Similarly, the disbursement under the education loan portfolio had declined from ₹2,248 crore in 2015–16 to ₹1,639 crore in 2016–17, he said. The credit plan for 2017–18 for Karnataka is projected at ₹1,60,020 crore.
In the wake of drought in 160 taluks during rabi 2016–17, he said there was an immediate need to assist farmers in the affected areas. “Banks are requested to extend relief measures and also grant fresh loans in line with extant guidelines.”
The State’s Annual Credit Plan projects total priority sector credit disbursement of ₹1,60,020 crore, in which the share of agriculture credit is ₹86,690 crore, constituting 54.17% of the total priority sector.
The share of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector credit is ₹34,703 crore (21.68%), that of the housing sector is ₹16,977 crore (10.6%), and that of the education sector is ₹3,857 crore (2.4%). The overall growth rate in total priority credit comes to 16.5% over the previous year’s achievement of ₹1,37,393 crore.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said, “I am glad to learn that banks have achieved the targets under the total farm sector and MSME sector under the Annual Credit Plan for the last three years. However, banks have achieved only 80% of the target in respect of crop production credit disbursement during 2016–17.”
