Govt promises more funds for education, agri sectors
The Union government is committed to ensuring increased credit flow into key sectors of the economy, be it education or agriculture, finance minister P Chidambaram said.
By TNN |
BANGALORE: The Union government is committed to ensuring increased credit flow into key sectors of the economy, be it education or agriculture, finance minister P Chidambaram said.
”The quantum of agriculture lending by scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) has tripled during the last three years and touched Rs 1.9 lakh crore from Rs 88,000 crore. This fiscal, we are projecting agri lending to touch Rs 2.25 lakh crore,” Mr Chidambaram said at the ‘Conclave of self-help groups (SHGs)’ organised by Canara Bank.
While encouraging rural families to access bank funding, he had a word of caution stating that the assistance from banks was in the form of a loan which needed to be repaid. “Banks are willing to re-schedule loans when borrowers suffer due to drought or famine but in the routine course those who avail financial assistance need to repay their loans,” he said.
Noting that the repayment record of SHGs was exemplary he said the government was keen on each bank helping to create five to seven lakh SHGs every year. Currently, there are 2.5 million SHGs in India. Calling on rural families to ensure that their wards had access to education, he said banks can’t refuse providing educational loans to eligible students who had secured admission to professional courses like engineering, medicine, dentistry or teaching.
“I would urge all bank managers to not reject loans for qualifying students. SCBs have already lent a sum of Rs 13,000 crore as educational loans to as many as nine lakh students. Canara Bank has lent money to 97,000 students and has an educational portfolio of Rs 1,234 crore. Rural women should take pride in not just their sons getting educated, but even ensure their daughters have access to education,” he added.
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Later speaking to the media, Mr Chidambaram said the inflationary trends were slowing down. “We are taking steps to curb inflation. One should remember that during 2000-01 we had inflation at over 6% for 48 out of 52 weeks, while in this case it has been around for about nine or 10 weeks,” he noted.On a rising rupee, he said the Indian rupee continued to be competitive compared to other currencies. “We have had
this (rising rupee) due to a variety of factors like FDI, FII inflows and inward remittances,” the FM said. In his welcome speech, Canara Bank CMD MBN Rao said the bank would continue with its focus on agri lending. He added the bank had credit-linked 1.15 lakh SHGs.
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