Adur Pradeep, OP
Bhubaneswar: The Indian Bank, which has 97 branches across the state, will open seven new branches in Odisha soon, NK Mishra, DGM, zone manager, Indian Bank, told Orissa Post in an interview.
“We will open branches at Khandagiri in Bhubaneswar, Kuakhia in Jajpur, Shakshi Gopal in Puri district and Rayagada and Bareipalli in Sambalpur. We will also open a GP centre at Kamlapur in Ganjam district,” he said.
“Now we have 97 branches and a zone office at Saheed Nagar. Our bank’s presence is mainly in rural areas where we have 43 branches, of which 14 are FI (Financial Inclusion) branches. The other 22 are in urban areas and 33 in semi-urban places.”
On Indian Bank’s performance in the state this year Mishra said, “In the beginning of the current fiscal, that is 2017-18, we had a business of Rs 4,531.76 crore. Deposits amounted to Rs 3,517.62 crore and advances Rs 1,014.14 crore. As per figures for the half year ended September 2017, the business of our bank in the state amounted to Rs 4,636.29 crore. At present (as on December 26, 2017), our business is Rs 4771.19 crore (Deposits Rs 3700.98 crore, advances Rs 1070.21 crore). Our deposits have grown by Rs 158 crore and advances by Rs 25.74 crore.”
In the home loan segment, Indian Bank has registered a growth of 17.97 per cent in the state, while the MSME segment grew by 19.14 per cent, he said, adding that others like agriculture, agri-allied activities, gold loans, etc have grown by 15.86 per cent. The vehicle loan portfolio has posted a growth of 20.13 per cent.
“Although the overall growth of our bank has been slow in the state till now, we are confident of acquiring more business in the third quarter and the last quarter of this financial year,” he said.
Regarding the bank’s focus sectors in the state, Mishra said, “We have been holding loan meets and campaigns in all districts. Recently, we conducted loan campaigns at Danpur in Kendrapara district, Khallikota and Berhampur in Ganjam distrcit, Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district and Niali and Brahmansailo in Cuttack district.”
“We focus on expanding our loan portfolio in segments like SHG loans, KCC loans, agri-allied activities, farm mechanisation, rice mills, cold storage and loans for horticulture operations. We are also focusing on increasing our presence in the retail segment by emphasising home loans, vehicle loans and clean salaried loans.”
The bank has also been promoting government schemes like MUDRA loans and the Stand-Up India scheme to provide financial assistance to bonafide, upcoming entrepreneurs.
On the bank’s NPAs levels Mishra said, “We are holding regular camps for reducing NPAs, which was 7.58 per cent at the end of the half-year. We are doing this with the help of our ground team working in branches. We are also trying to reduce slippages through regular follow-ups with borrowers.”
“We have also been promoting the government’s dream of a Cashless India by organising digital carnivals/camps to encourage technology enabled banking through mobile apps and Net banking. For this, Indian Bank has tech products like Indpay, IB Smart Remote, Net Banking, POS, IB UPI, IB BHIM AADHAAR PAY, BHARAT QR etc.”
Mishra is also optimistic about credit growth next year. “With GDP growing and Moody’s raising India’s sovereign rating from Baa3 to Baaa2 for the first time since 2004 in November, there are huge possibilities to accelerate credit growth within the state and across the country. The Sensex has also recently crossed 34,000.”
“Odisha has also been growing as the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth rate was at 7.94 per cent for FY 2016-17 compared to 6.1 per cent in FY 2015-16,” he added.
On demonetisation he said, “Demonetisation increased cash inflow into banks which enabled us to offer cheaper loans. It also helped to bring unaccounted money into formal channels, which resulted in an increase in I-T collections.”
Talking about GST implementation and its effects, Mishra said, “GST has transformed the base of indirect taxation and has enabled free flow of goods and services. GST is also expected to eliminate the cascading effects of taxes. Now as people are getting more aware about GST, positives like reduction of manufacturing cost due to lower taxes, less tax compliance problems due to the removal of indirect taxes like VAT, CST, service tax etc is being understood by commoners.”