Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Apr 05, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Apr 05, 2002 |
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Money & Banking
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Agricultural Institutions Agri-Biz & Commodities - Agricultural Institutions Nabard seeking new ways to raise funds Our Bureau
Mr Y.C. Nanda, Chairman, Nabard, addressing a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday.
MUMBAI, April 4 THE National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) is seeking government permission to raise part of the Rs 3,000-crore funds it requires for the current fiscal, through non-traditional routes. Mr Y.C. Nanda, Chairman, Nabard, will be meeting the Finance Secretary tomorrow in Delhi, to discuss a proposal for raising funds through special instruments. Mr Nanda told newspersons here today that an organisation like Nabard with no retail outlets needed special instruments to raise funds. "If I have to provide refinance then I have to first raise funds at reasonable rates,'' he said. Details of the instruments that will help Nabard to raise funds at cheaper rates from the market are being worked out. So far, Nabard has been raising funds through capital gains and priority sector bonds. The bank had raised Rs 2,548 crore (Rs 1,472 crore) last year of which Rs 1,775.47 crore was through capital gains bonds and Rs 773 crore through priority sector bonds. Explaining Nabard's performance, Mr Nanda said that he was confident that Nabard's balance sheet would cross Rs 45,000 crore in 2001-2002 and Rs 50,000 crore in the current year. Nabard's aggregate disbursements under investment credit during the year 2001-2002 reached Rs 6,682.77 crore (Rs 6,158.10 crore). Mr Nanda said refinance to irrigation projects increased to Rs 691 crore from Rs 628 crore. "We had reduced the interest rates on credits to irrigation and that is yielding good results''. "Rates of interest were brought down in keeping with our broad strategy to promoter irrigation facilities.'' Over Rs 500 crore have been given by way of refinance to banks for rural housing. Of this, about Rs 100 crore went to rural housing in Orissa, Mr Nanda said. Referring to credits to the farm sector, he said since the introduction of the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme in 1998, commercial banks, co-operative banks and regional rural banks had together issued 2.25 crore Kisan Credit Cards up to February 2002, as against the overall target of one crore cards for 2001-2002. Speaking about the Rural Infrastructure Development fund VII, (RIDF VII ), Mr Nanda said "The cumulative disbursements of RIDF has crossed 13,000 crore. However, the target was to reach 19,000 crore by March 2002, so we have fallen behind''. Mr Nanda said that the delay was due to administrative and other reasons, but the fund had over all done well. "We will reach the Rs 19,000 crore target by June next year'', he said. The total drawals for 2001-2002 under the RIDF aggregated Rs 3,790.32 crore (Rs 3,176.85 crore). "Nabard is expecting a surplus of Rs 1,500 crore, after paying a tax of Rs 385 crore. The surplus will be ploughed back into the bank's activities,'' said Mr Nanda.
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