Banks achieved over 97 per cent of agricultural credit disbursement target during the last fiscal year 2010-11 despite devastating floods in the country that caused huge losses to agriculture sector, said the central bank Thursday. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the agricultural credit disbursement by commercial and specialized banks rose by 6.01 per cent to Rs263.022 billion during FY11 against the target annual of Rs270 billion. In absolute terms, disbursement of credit to the agriculture sector increased by over Rs14.9 billion in FY11, when compared with total disbursement of Rs248.120 billion in the preceding fiscal year, the bank said.
Rs140.3b DISBURSEMENT BY 5 MAJOR BANKS
SBP said that overall credit disbursement by five major commercial banks including Allied Bank Limited, Habib Bank Limited, MCB Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank Limited stood at Rs140.312 billion in FY11 compared with Rs119.609 billion in FY10, depicting an increase of Rs20.70 billion or 17.31 per cent. These five banks, the SBP said, as a whole surpassed their target by Rs7.9 billion or 5.9 per cent as their annual target of agricultural credit disbursement for FY11 was Rs132.45 billion.
At least 13 private domestic banks also loaned a combined Rs50.187 billion during the FY11, compared with Rs43.777 billion disbursed in the preceding fiscal year, depicting an increase of 14.64 per cent, SBP said. These 13 domestic private banks as a group surpassed their annual target of Rs48.90 billion by Rs1.3 billion or 2.6 per cent. Disbursement by Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank Limited (PPCBL) stood at Rs7.161 billion in 2010-11, compared with Rs5.722 billion in 2009-10, depicting an increase of 25.16 per cent. PPCBL surpassed its annual target of Rs6.85 billion by Rs0.3 billion or 4.6 per cent. However, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited disbursed a total of Rs65.361 billion in 2010-11, falling short by 17.28 per cent when compared with Rs79.012 billion in 2009-10. It could only achieve 80 per cent of its target of Rs81.80 billion, the regulator said.
SBP also pointed out that agriculture credit disbursements to Punjab increased by Rs10.9 billion or 5.1 per cent, Sindh by Rs3.8 billion or 14.1 per cent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by Rs0.5 billion or 7.8 per cent and AJK by Rs0.1 billion or 13.2 per cent during the last fiscal year when compared with the preceding fiscal year. However, the disbursements to Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan declined by Rs0.3 billion and Rs0.1 billion respectively during 2010-11 compared with fiscal year 2009-10, SBP said. The bank said that the disbursement to non-farm sector i.e. livestock, poultry, fisheries, etc. increased by Rs7.9 billion or 10.3 per cent and to farm sector by Rs7.0 billion or 4.1 per cent during July-June 2010-11 compared with fiscal year 2009-10. The outstanding agriculture credit portfolio of banks increased to Rs193.3 billion at end June 2011 from Rs183.4 billion at end June last year, said SBP.
