By IANS,
Kolkata: The delayed monsoon in the country will hit the banking sector as it is set to affect credit offtake in the farm sector, a top official of Dena Bank said Monday.
“Monsoon has been delayed and there is no alternate irrigation facility. Naturally, the offtake will be affected,” Dena Bank Chairperson and Managing Director (CMD) Nupur Mitra told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce(BCC) here.
Mitra said farmers should be encouraged to reduce their dependency on the monsoon to bring down its effect on credit offtake.
“Dependence on the monsoon perhaps has to be reduced gradually so that they (farmers) do the water conservation. Once they start doing this, their dependency will be lower. Of course, you cannot rule out the role of monsoon, but you can definitely bring down the role of monsoon in the offtake,” she observed.
She said the state run bank had cut the rate of agricultural loan five months back and would concentrate on sectors in the farm portfolio, except the crop sector, so as to ensure that delayed monsoon does not effect the bank’s planned disbursement.
Dena Bank had set a target of Rs.500 crore of agri funding for the short term period ending December, 2012.
Asked whether the bank would reset its agri disbursement plan, Mitra said: “No, I think at the moment the monsoon is not all that bad. And the agricultural portfolio is not only crop oriented. There are also other sectors in that, which will not be dependent on monsoon.”
“So, we will concentrate on those sectors so that the total agricultural portfolio should not be affected,” she said.
The Mumbai headquartered bank, which is looking at maintaining its Net Interest Margin (NIM) at three percent for this fiscal, has planned to clock 25 percent business growth in FY13.
“The bank is looking at a total business of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2012-13. We should have a healthy growth and a good portfolio,” the CMD added.