Agricultural credit disbursement by the banks surged by 19 percent on year-on-year basis to Rs 172.563 billion in the first eight months, July-February, of the current fiscal year (2011-12).
In absolute terms, disbursement of credit to the agriculture sector increased by over Rs 27.124 billion in the review period when compared with total disbursement of Rs 145.439 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
Overall credit disbursement by five major commercial banks, including Allied Bank, Habib Bank, MCB Bank, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank, stood at Rs 94.595 billion in the said months compared to Rs 80.415 billion disbursed in FY2011. This depicts an increase of Rs 14.180 billion or 17.63 percent, reported the central bank Wednesday. The Zarai Taraqiati Bank, the largest specialized bank, disbursed a total of Rs 31.652 billion, up by 1.18 percent when compared with Rs 31.282 billion disbursement of last fiscal year. The Punjab Provincial Co-operative Bank disbursed Rs 5.549 billion, up by 33.13 percent compared to last year’s Rs 4.168 billion. The 14 domestic private banks also loaned a combined amount of Rs 32.910 billion during the review period that registered an increase of 11.28 percent compared to Rs 29.574 billion of FY11. The five microfinance banks, Khushhali Bank, NRSP Microfinance Bank, The First Microfinance Bank, Pak Oman Microfinance Bank and Tameer Microfinance Bank, disbursements totaled at Rs 7.856 billion during the period.
It may be pointed out that the State Bank for the first time has given an indicative target of Rs 12.20 billion to microfinance banks for disbursement of credit to agriculture sector during the current fiscal year. It may be recalled that the State Bank has set an indicative agricultural credit disbursement target of Rs 285 billion for the current fiscal year.