Advisor Ladakh chairs 5th UTLBC meeting in Leh

Leh, June 01: Advisor to Hon’ble Lt. Governor, UT Ladakh, Umang Narula chaired the fifth meeting of the Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committee (UTLBC) of Ladakh for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, to March 31, 2022, in Leh.
The Assistant General Manager/Convenor UTLBC, UT Ladakh, Tsering Morup gave a detailed presentation on the position of districts and banks regarding their Credit Deposit (CD) Ratio. The Chairman was informed that the total amount of deposits as on March 31, 2022 stood at Rs. 7762.03 crore with a deposit growth of 19.59% on a year-on-year basis as compared to Rs. 6490.34 crore. The total credit amount was recorded at Rs. 2759.40 crore with credit growth of 29.04% as compared to Rs. 2138.33 crore as of March 31, 2021, in UT Ladakh. Further, he apprised the Chairman that in the Priority sector, Rs. 628.14 crore was disbursed into 28627 accounts, while in the non-Priority sector a total of Rs. 654.83 crore was disbursed into 10937 accounts. Regarding, NPA position of UT Ladakh as of March, 31, 2022, the Chair was informed that the total outstanding amount was Rs. 290579.00 lakh, and the NPA amount was Rs. 3334.48 lakhs.
Advisor Ladakh, observing that some banks had improved their CD ratios while others had shown a decline, stated that the CD ratio of the banks must improve. Further, he exhorted the banks to expand and deepen the digital payment ecosystem in the Union Territory to make Ladakh a digital UT. He also directed the banks to improve their connectivity and increase the branch network and provide the public with effective banking services. Regarding, Kisan Credit Cards (KCC), Advisor Ladakh emphasized on achieving 100 percent saturation across the UT. KCC is issued to the farmers on the basis of their holdings for uniform adoption by the banks so that farmers may use them to purchase agriculture inputs and draw cash for their production needs.
In the meeting, it was pointed out that the extension of banking facilities to all the uncovered villages of Ladakh should remain a priority and the option of banking services with VSAT connectivity with the common service centers should be explored for places where internet connectivity is a major challenge and attempt of employing the BC model hasn’t been successful.
Regional Director (J&K & Ladakh), Reserve Bank of India, R.O. Jammu, Kamal Patnaik set targets in the various social security schemes especially on the Stand-Up India scheme for the banks, over a stipulated period of time.
Regional Manager, SBI, Fayaz Ahmed Wani while giving the vote of thanks assured the Chair, on behalf of UTLBC that the targets set in the meeting, particularly in the agriculture sector would be achieved by the banks. He said that the banks would put extra effort to increase the CD ratio in UT Ladakh and in the next meeting they would have achieved positive results.
The meeting was attended by Administrative Secretaries; Deputy Commissioners (Leh and Kargil); Under Secretary, DFS, MoF, GoI (Nodal Officer for Ladakh UTLBC); Additional Secretary, Finance; Directors of concerned departments; Regional Director (J&K), Reserve Bank of India, R.O. Jammu; General Manager, State Bank of India, Local H.O.Chandigarh; DGM, State Bank of India, Admin Office Jammu; DGM, RBO-V, State Bank of India, Admin Office, Jammu, and representatives of the member banks and financial institutions.