ITANAGAR, 24 Mar: The state credit plan, as envisaged under the state focus paper prepared by the NABARD, has estimated the exploitable potential for 2023-’24 at Rs 870.42 crore, the NABARD informed in a release on Friday.
The potential was highlighted after the unveiling of the NABARD’s state focus paper 2023-’24 by Finance Principal Secretary Dr Sharat Chauhan during a ‘state credit seminar’ organised by the NABARD at the DK Convention Centre here.
Senior officials from various state government departments, and bank officials from the controlling offices of the SBI, the APRB, the Apex Bank and others, attended the event, besides KVK scientists and representatives of civil societies.
Speaking on the occasion, Chauhan said that “banking is crucial for the development of a resource-crunch state like Arunachal Pradesh,” and assured to provide “full support of the state government in this regard.”
He highlighted the need for improving financial literacy in the state, and expressed hope that “the combined efforts of the banks and the NABARD in promoting financial inclusion shall increase the outreach of institutional finance to the remotest corners of the state, leading to enhanced demand for rural credit, as well as better utilisation.”
Expressing concern at the low credit flow and CD ratio, he advised the SLBC and the NABARD to “chalk out plans for boosting the finance and improve the reporting of the same.”
He advised all stakeholders to “take positive steps towards the acceleration of credit supply in Arunachal Pradesh.”
NABARD General Manager Partho Saha said that the state focus paper prepared by the NABARD “is the culmination of the credit planning exercise undertaken by the NABARD, as prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India.”
The state credit plan is an aggregation of the potential linked credit plans prepared for each district through a consultative process, and estimates the exploitable credit potential for the priority sector in the state for the coming year.
Saha said that “the NABARD is committed to rural prosperity and has implemented various interventions to promote financial literacy and financial inclusion, support for capacity building and skill development, tribal development programmes, springshed projects for revival and preservation of springs, GI registration of prominent local products, interventions on technology transfer, climate change initiatives, etc.”
Industries Secretary Hage Tari said that the state focus paper “is a forward-looking document,” but stressed “the need for institutional credit to promote exports in the region and encourage trade with Myanmar and Bhutan.”
The SBI DGM in his address said that “the credit projections can be realised only with the fulfillment of non-credit support in the form of certain enabling policy changes like land reforms, infrastructure development, technology support, extension services, research and development, etc.”
