New Delhi: As part of a government-mandated outreach programme, public sector banks (PCB) have disbursed a record Rs 4.91 lakh crore of loans during October-November, the finance ministry said Tuesday.
To boost consumption and revive the economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in September asked banks to reach out to customers and signal their willingness to lend following all prudential norms.
Under Sitharaman’s direction, outreach camps or loan ‘melas’ were conducted across 374 districts to improve credit delivery and support the needs of the economy, with particular focus on MSMEs, NBFCs, corporates, retail and agriculture sector borrowers, without compromising prudential lending.
Banks disbursed Rs 2.52 lakh crore of loans in October and Rs 2.39 lakh crore in November. With this, the total disbursement by public sector banks to various sectors since the launch of the Customer Outreach programme in October stands at Rs 4.91 lakh crore, the finance ministry said in a statement.
During the two months, banks have given Rs 72,985 crore to MSME sector while loans to corporates stood at Rs 2.2 lakh crore. For NBFCs, PSBs disbursed Rs 25,525 crore loan in November, increasing sharply from Rs 19,628 crore in October, taking the total to Rs 45,153 crore, it further said.
As per the data released, banks have given Rs 27,225 crore as home loan, Rs 11,088 crore as vehicle loans and Rs 1,111 crore as education loan during the two months.
Farmers availed Rs 78,374 crore as agriculture loan from banks during October-November.
PTI