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PNB lends Rs. 5302 cr under SACP

New Delhi, October 07, 2004

Punjab National Bank disbursed Rs.5302 crore under Special Agricultural Credit Plan (SACP) during the year 2003-04 which is highest among all the nationalised banks. Shri D.L. Rawal, General Manager (Agriculture) stated that PNB has been consistently exceeding the target of fresh disbursements under SACP and Kisan Credit Cards Scheme for last five years in succession. The annual growth rates under SACP during the last five years ranged from 30% to 42%.

Shri Rawal said that pursuant to the announcement of Union Finance Minister in the month of June, 2004 on augmentation of agriculture credit and providing relief measures to the farmers, Bank has taken various pro-active steps in implementation of the package and during the period April-August’04, Bank has disbursed more than Rs.2642 crore under agriculture registering a growth of 86% over disbursements during corresponding period last year. During this period, bank has already added 1,76,147 new farmers in its fold against the annual target of 2,74,700.

All the rural and semi urban branches of the bank have been directed to organise Kisan Goshthies/farmers’ workshops involving farmers, peoples representatives, development agencies of the State Govts., NGOs, subject matter specialists in agriculture. More than 1134 such Kisan Goshthies/farmers’ workshops have been organised during current financial year, attended by 99,299 farmers.

The bank is committed to provide relief to the farmers who suffered losses due to the natural calamities as well as factors beyond their control and formulated special schemes for providing relief to such farmers. A special One Time Settlement of dues to the small and marginal farmers is also under implementation. With a view to provide support to field functionaries, Bank has decided to further recruit 100 Agriculture Officers.

In order to encourage the farmers to diversify to non traditional crops like medicinal, aromatic and herbal crops, Bank has identified Uttaranchal, U.P., M.P., Rajasthan, Kerala, Karnatka and Andhra Pradesh State as thrust areas and area specific credit projects are being implemented.

PNB has exceeded the national goal of lending 18% of Net Bank Credit (NBC) to agriculture sector. The Bank has unique distinction of consistently achieving the growth of 30-35% in agriculture credit during last three years as against combined average growth rate of around 18% for public sector banks.

Ministry of Finance has recently felicitated PNB for exceeding the national goal of lending to Agriculture

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