As many as 16 public sector banks and 10 private sector banks missed the target of their lending to priority sector in the year 2012-13, the Reserve Bank said.
“As on March 31, 2013 domestic banks (both public and private) were below the target of priority sector lending. During this period, 16 of the 26 public sector banks, 10 of the 20 private sector banks and 2 of the 41 foreign banks could not achieve the target of overall public sector lending,” RBI said in its Annual Report 2012-13.
The RBI report did not name the banks that missed the target of lending towards priority sector. Agriculture, micro and small enterprises (MSEs), education and housing are among the sectors under the priority lending.
Domestic banks are required to tender 40 per cent of their advances towards priority sector, while for foreign banks the limit is at 32 per cent of their total advances.
As of March 2013, priority sector advances by public sector banks was at 36.2 per cent at Rs 12.82 lakh crore; private sector banks at 37.5 per cent at Rs 3.27 lakh crore and by foreign banks the priority sector lending was at 35.1 per cent at Rs 84,854 crore, according to the data.
However, during the year 2012-13, the lending to agriculture sector remained higher than the target of 5.75 lakh crore at Rs 6.07 lakh crore, which formed 105.6 per cent of the target at the end of March, 2013.
The credit to the SME sector by banks registered a growth of 29.8 per cent in 2012-13 over the previous year.
All banks having shortfall in lending to priority sector target are allocated amounts for contribution to the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).