The State-level bankers committee (SLBC) will convene a special session to finalise relief measures, including restructuring of loans, once the government notification regarding flood-hit villages is issued, SLBC officials have said.
“We will follow the same method that we did last year. But the Revenue Department has to first issue the notification listing flood-affected villages before banks can take any step in this direction,” SLBC convener G.K. Maya said while briefing the media on the multi-level consultation and ideation organised by SLBC here on Wednesday.
Last year, the Revenue Department had notified 1,259 villages as flood-affected under the relevant State regulations.
At the same time, the recurrence of floods before the expiry of the term of distress relief measures announced last year presented a novel problem, Ms. Maya said. “It is a special situation without precedent. For instance, we do not know whether we may have to restructure loans that were restructured after the 2018 floods,” she said.
Such issues would be taken up with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as new policies may be required to tackle the 2019 scenario, she said.
Banks would continue to issue agricultural gold loans, SLBC officials said. Banks had no hesitation in extending gold loan either under agricultural scheme or general scheme “if the requirement is genuine,” said R.A. Sankara Narayanan, chairman, SLBC, and MD and CEO, Canara Bank.
Reporting the widespread misuse of agricultural gold loans, the State government had recently urged the SLBC to ensure that the loans were issued exclusively through Kisan Credit Card (KCC) accounts to prevent misuse.
The SLBC had organised meetings at the bank branch/regional level to assess the activities of banks with regard to priority sectors. On Wednesday, the SLBC convened a meeting of heads of public sector banks and senior State government officials.
