PSU banks step up lending, disburse a record Rs 4.91 lakh cr loans in Oct-Nov

The finance ministry on Tuesday said state-run banks disbursed a record Rs 4.91 lakh crore worth loans in the October-November period, as part of an outreach programme directed by the ministry.

The statement comes at a time when the government is seeking to enhance credit flow and stimulate consumption, while impressing on banks to shed risk aversion and get back to the job of lending.

Banks disbursed loans worth Rs 2.39 lakh crore in November on top of Rs 2.52 lakh crore in October. In these two months, the public-sector banks provided loans of Rs 72,985 crore to the MSME sector. Advances to companies, including the large ones, stood at Rs 2.2 lakh crore.

To beat the economic slowdown, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had, in September, directed the state-run lenders to reach out to customers and step up lending while complying with all the prudential norms. Subsequently, the outreach programme was conducted in 374 districts across the country to improve credit delivery, especially in critical sectors of the economy such as MSMEs, NBFCs, retail and the agriculture sectors.

In fact, loan growth has been slowing sharply and remains the biggest problem for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) instead of transmission. Between March-end and November 8, loans to companies and individuals rose just 0.43% to Rs 97.67 lakh crore. That’s despite the fact that liquidity is ample and the surplus has averaged Rs 2 lakh crore over the past many months.

According to the finance ministry, banks have extended Rs 27,225 crore as home loans, Rs 11,088 crore as vehicle loans and Rs 1,111 crore as education loans over October and November. Farmers, too, got Rs 78,374 crore as agriculture loan in these two months.