Date:25/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/25/stories/2008052551420600.htm

Tamil Nadu

“Dramatic growth in banking sector”

Staff Reporter

KANDANUR (SIVAGANGA DISTRICT): The banking sector has gone through a revolutionary phase in the four-year-period of the United Progressive Alliance rule, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Saturday.

Inaugurating an automated teller machine of Canara Bank at his native village, Mr. Chidambaram said almost all banks had seen a dramatic growth. Their volume of business touched a new high. The banks not only achieved the targets in various sectors, but also fulfilled their social commitments.

Citing the manifold increase in farm loans, he said it was just Rs. 87, 000 crore during 2003-04 and rose to Rs 2,50,000 crore in 2007-08. “I had promised that farm loan would be doubled in three years. But it has tripled in four years,” he said. Against 11 lakh self-help groups in 2003-04, the banks had promoted 30 lakh groups. Similarly, education loans to the tune of Rs 19,771 crore had been disbursed to 12.52 lakh students last year. “No country in the world has given education loans as we have. It is a tremendous achievement,” he said.

Highlighting the loan waiver, Mr. Chidambaram said that it was not that the government was repaying the debts of farmers; it was the government and the people that were repaying the debts of farmers.

Targets achieved

M. B. N. Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, Canara Bank, who presided over the function that also marked the shifting of the branch to new premises, said the bank, complying with the Finance Ministry’s wish, had advanced loans to 3.41 lakh farmers. The bank had achieved its targets in the priority and other sectors and had advanced loans over and above the stipulated level. As per the financial inclusion plan, 12 lakh no-frills accounts had been opened.