Priority sector lending by scheduled commercial bank

Abstract

The priority sector lending norms have been fulfilled by a good margin by public sector banks at present. While public sector banks, continued to meet the target till 2009, however marginally fell short of the target of 40 per cent in March 2010. They also failed to achieve the various sub-targets for agriculture, tiny sector within the SSI sector, advances to weaker sections, etc. An important fact that the issue of priority sector lending, an important concern against privatization, is no longer that crucial. It is an interesting fact to note that the share of export credit in total net bank credit has been significantly above the prescribed sub-target of 12 per cent. Looking at the percentage share of credit to the sub-groups of the priority sector, it is observed that the credit to SSI sector of public sector bank groups has been declined by 6.4 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively over time. On the other hand, the credit to other priority sector by public sector bank groups has been increased by 7.0 per cent and 12.3 per cent respectively over time.