Rs 5.94 lakh crore credit plan for 2021-22 proposed for Maharashtra

Amid a raging debate over the three farm laws, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has proposed a credit plan of Rs 5.94 lakh crore for Maharashtra for 2021-22 which is an increase of 8% which is Rs 46,481 crore over the previous year. Of the Rs 5.94 lakh crore, NABARD has proposed Rs 1.27 lakh crore for agriculture, Rs 3.48 lakh crore for micro, small and medium enterprises.

For other sectors like education, housing, social infrastructure, exports, a projection of Rs 1.18 lakh crore has been proposed. The annual credit plan was released on Thursday at the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who was accompanied by the cooperation minister Balasaheb Patil and agriculture minister Dada Bhuse.

Thackeray said he was impressed by NABARD's slogan 'Development of villages is the development of the country.’ He, however, stated that

NABARD should focus more on empowering the common man in rural areas.

CM said NABARD and banks should ensure that balanced funds are distributed throughout the state while allocating more funds to the undeveloped departments in the state. However, Thackeray expressed serious displeasure over the non-achievement of targets of giving new crop loans to farmers by many banks. "The state government has given the benefit of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Debt Relief Scheme for farmers. However, most of the nationalised and private banks did not meet the target in providing new crop loans to farmers,’’ he added.

CM asked the representatives of the banks that all the banks should strive to meet the target while providing loans to the farmers this year and provide crop loans to the farmers on a priority basis.

As far as Maharashtra’s banking profile is concerned, the total deposits of the banks in the state stood at Rs 25.08 lakh crore as of March 31, 2020, showing an increase of 11% over March 31, 2019. Nearly 59% of the deposits were concentrated in Mumbai with 14%of branches. The total advances outstanding in the state as of September 30, 2020, stood at Rs 24 lakh crore of which Rs 1.41 lakh crore was towards the agriculture sector and Rs 3.83 lakh crore towards other priority sectors. The credit deposit ratio of the state as of March 31, 2020, stood at 92%.