In terms of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines on Priority Sector Lending (PSL) a target of 40 percent of Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) or Credit Equivalent amount of Off-Balance Sheet Exposures (OBE), whichever is higher, as of preceding March 31st, has been mandated for lending to the priority sector by domestic scheduled commercial banks and foreign banks with 20 branches and above. Within this, sub-targets of 18% of ANBC or OBE whichever is higher, as of preceding March 31st is for Agriculture and 10% ANBC or OBE whichever is higher, as of preceding March 31st is for weaker sections which includes, among others, persons from SCs/ STs. RBI prescribes PSL targets bank-wise and not state-wise.
Bank-wise achievement under Priority Sector, Agriculture and Weaker Section in the State Maharashtra is placed at Annexure I, AnnexureII and Annexure III.
As per extant RBI guidelines, there exist provisions to monitor the performance of banks against the stipulated targets/ sub-targets. To ensure continuous flow of credit to priority sector, the guidelines prescribe monitoring of priority sector returns figures on ‘quarterly’ basis. In case of banks having shortfall in lending to the designated priority sector categories/ sub-categories, the banks are advised to contribute to the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and other refinance funds every year.
Further, non-achievement of the priority sector targets/ sub-targets are taken into account by RBI while granting regulatory clearances/ approvals for various proposals of the banks.
This was stated by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
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DSM/RM/PD