AU Banks to double balance sheet: MD

pulses,” the other official said.

“In the first round, we plan to visit five to seven states, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat over this week from Monday. Although the move is aimed at all pulses, we will be focusing especially on yellow pea and

(gram). The plan is to sensitise states, their machinery and stakeholders, visit

premises of millers and importers and hold meetings with trade entities.” Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the Mode Code of Conduct amid the Lok Sabha elections.

The move is in line with the government’s effort to augment pulses supply and stabilize prices amid shortfall of some pulses, especially and in the domestic market by allowing duty free imports of yellow peas from last December until June this year.

An import duty of 50% on yellow peas was first introduced in November 2017. However, as pulse prices rose, the Centre in early December 2023 allowed duty-free imports until March 2024 and later extended it till June. According to the second official, India so far has imported around 1.5 million tonnes of yellow peas since December. India largely imports yellow peas, used in place of from Canada and Russia.

Queries sent to the agriculture ministry and the department of consumer affairs remained unanswered at press time.

AU Small Finance Bank is targeting to double its balance sheet size to ₹2.5 trillion in three years, helped by the acquisition of Fincare SFB and the growing consumption trend in the country.

The bank earlier this week operationalized Authorised Dealer (AD-I) license with a venture in forex with ‘AU Remit’ and crossborder trade with ‘AU DigiTrade’.

“We are targeting a growth of 25% in the next three years and we should double the balance sheet size to ₹2.5 trillion by the time we complete one decade of existence,” AU Small Finance Bank managing director Sanjay Agarwal said.

The bank started its business in 2017, with a balance sheet size of ₹10,000 crore, which has now crossed ₹1.25 trillion. Human resources has gone up from just 3,000 to 46,000 during the same period, he said.

The move is in line with the govt’s effort to augment pulses supply and stabilize prices amid shortfall of some pulses, especially tur and urad