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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman plans to hold separate meetings in July-August in different regions of the country to review the functioning of the Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) along with their sponsor banks.
The review would have special focus on the technological upgradation of RRBs.
The review of the RRBs would commence from July 21 at Tripura, in which Sitharaman will conduct a review of the functioning of the RRBs in the North-East.
Meetings to review the functioning of the RRBs, along with the corresponding sponsor bank, will then be held by the her region-wise in the North, West, South, East, and Central parts of the country.
KCC DRIVE
The meeting is expected to among other things review the progress with regard to issuance of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to farm and allied sector by the RRBs.
A special KCC saturation drive has already been launched under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to cover 2.5 crore farmers under KCC with a credit boost of ₹2-lakh crore. The upcoming meeting would also see the Finance Minister review the capital position of certain RRBs, sources said.
In 2022-23, there has been a substantial improvement in the financial performance of RRBs compared with 2021-22.
The government is also expected to urge RRBs to redouble their efforts for achieving the targets fixed in the viability plans for these entities.
Tech focus
The Finance Ministry had recently asked the sponsor banks along with Nabard to proactively handhold their respective RRBs for facilitating technology adoption so as to enable them to serve their customers more efficiently.
The need for technology upgradation of RRBs, strategies for NPA reduction, IT initiatives, improving financial inclusion, enhancing credit delivery to rural areas and support being given by sponsor banks to the RRBs are the main issues that could be discussed in the upcoming review meeting, sources said.
Currently, the Centre holds 50 per cent equity stake in RRBs, while 35 per cent and 15 per cent are with the sponsor banks and State governments concerned, respectively.
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