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The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Tamil Nadu region is planning to make ₹40,000 crore of loan disbursal in FY22, according to a senior official of the development bank.
During FY21, loans disbursed by Tamil Nadu Regional Office of the NABARD reached an all-time high of ₹27,104 crore, nearly doubling from ₹14,458 crore disbursed the previous year.
“In FY21, our loan disbursal grew by 87per cent to ₹27,104 crore. If the same level of growth sustains and co-operation from all stakeholders continues, we are confident of disbursing loans worth ₹40,000 crore in FY22,” S Selvaraj, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Tamil Nadu Region said here on Thursday.
He was addressing a press conference in the city to highlight the milestone achieved by NABARD Tamil Nadu region.
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Selvaraj said that the growth in loan disbursement of NABARD Tamil Nadu region is higher than the national growth rate and also assumes significance as it came during the pandemic-hit year.
“This growth (in disbursements) is really remarkable since office functioning were severely impacted during the first five months due to Covid-19,” Selvaraj said, adding, “The support from Tamil Nadu government and government institutions and from stakeholders such as commercial banks, co-operative banks, NBFC-MFIs, selfless work and dedication by NABARD officials and transparent and simplified procedures at NABARD are the major reasons that enabled this robust growth.”
At pan-India level, Loans and advances of NABARD grew by 25 per cent to to ₹6.03-lakh crore in FY21 as against ₹4.81-lakh crore in the previous year.
Of the total disbursement in Tamil Nadu during FY21, refinancing of loans to eligible financial institutions increased by 89 per cent to ₹23,062 crore while support for rural infrastructure stood at ₹4,042 crore. The development bank also extended a grant assistance of ₹31 crore to various innovative projects to Agri and allied sectors.
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Of the total refinancing, Cooperative banks accounted for a major share at ₹8,761 crore (38 per cent) followed by Commercial Banks (₹6,602 crore), Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) – ₹4,840 crore and NBFC / NBFC-MFIs at ₹2,858 crore.
The ratio between loan refinancing and rural infrastructure support stood 85-15 per cent in FY21. Selvaraj said in FY22, the share of rural infrastructure may go up to 25 per cent as per the demand.
To aid the economic revival, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday extended a fresh support of ₹50,000 crore to the All-India Financial Institutions for new lending in FY22. Out of which, NABARD will be provided a special liquidity facility (SLF) of ₹25,000 crore for one year to support agriculture and allied activities, the rural non-farm sector and non-banking financial companies-microfinance institutions.
“RBI has announced a SLF window to address liquidity problems faced by banks due to the pandemic. Last year, we released ₹1,500 crore to banks in Tamil Nadu under this facility. This year also we expect to extend around ₹2,000 crore to Cooperative Banks and RRBs to meet liquidity challenges, if any,” Selvaraj said.