The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Agartala conducted a meeting with private sector banks and KVIC officials on Tuesday to address the poor performance of private sector banks in lending under government schemes in Tripura. The initiative was taken by the RBI to understand the reasons behind the poor performance and to explore avenues for improving lending under different government schemes.
According to sources, the RBI regularly reviews the performance of banks in Tripura on various parameters of financial inclusion and lending in government schemes like PMEGP. Recently, it was observed that the performance of private sector banks in lending under government sector schemes was very poor.
During the meeting, it was learnt that there were multiple bottlenecks behind low credit under government schemes like PMEGP. Several proposals forwarded were pending with the banks for more than stipulated time. Further, the bank staff required more capacity building. The time taken to sanction the loans also got delayed due to administrative control offices of private banks located outside Tripura. On many cases, banks kept the proposals pending due to want of additional documents. It was also observed that proposals sent by KVIC were quite low for private banks vis a vis public sector banks. There was also lack of effective coordination between different agencies like banks, KVIC, DIC, etc.
The RBI advised all the banks to resolve all pending cases within a fortnight. They were also asked to be proactive to source loan applications by visiting various training classes conducted by Rural Self Employment Training Institutions and to spend more time on the field. The issues faced could be discussed in block and district level meetings conducted under the Lead Bank Scheme of RBI. They were also given the option to consider routing existing loans in the MSME sector via PMEGP so that the beneficiaries get the benefits under the schemes. The KVIC was requested to sponsor more proposals to private banks and to conduct handholding sessions for both the bankers and the beneficiaries. RBI also advised to ensure frequent discussions and efficient coordination between the various institutions.
The bankers assured that they would resolve the issue on a priority basis. The RBI Agartala will conduct a follow-up meeting with the stakeholders shortly to ensure that there is significant improvement in the performance of private banks in government schemes in the state.
Overall, the RBI’s move is expected to improve the lending scenario under government-sponsored schemes in Tripura.
