Despite bad farm loans, coop banks' profit up 100 times

Parvesh Sharma
Sangrur, April 21

Despite stiff resistance by state farmers against the recovery of loans coupled with the pandemic aftereffects, Punjab State Cooperative Bank Limited (PSCB) and the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) have registered a growth of 10,537% in its annual profit during 2021-22 as compared to 2020-21.

Performance to improve further

We have set a target to further increase the profit during the current fiscal. Under the guidance of our senior officers, we will bring many more effective changes in the working of the PSCB soon. —Rajesh Dhiman, PSCB Managing Director

During 2020-21, the PSCB and the DCCBs registered a profit of Rs 70.99 lakh, which has jumped to Rs 75.51 crore in this fiscal. Authorities of the DCCBs had reduced the saving and fixed deposit (FD) interest last year, which led to the reduction of the cost of deposits. The authorities also gave FDs to small finance banks on a higher rate of interest. Apart from it, sources said during Covid, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) had provided special liquidity facility amounting to Rs 850 crore at the 4.40% interest rate. However, of the total interest, 2% subvention was also available and the effective rate came to 2.40%. The DCCBs have availed additional short-term agriculture limit at the rate of interest of 5.05% to 5.60% during the last fiscal.

Talking to The Tribune, Cooperation and Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said: “The effects of the AAP government have started coming to the fore as the cooperative banks have registered a growth of 10,537% in their annual profit. Now, other sectors will also see profit in the coming time as we are working hard round the clock. The leaders of previous governments didn’t work as they came only to rob the state and fill their own pockets.”

Notably, the PSCB has total 18 branches while the DCCBs have 802 and there are total 3,544 Primary Agriculture Cooperative societies (PACS) across Punjab. These banks give loans to the area residents for agriculture and non-agriculture purposes to farmers and non-farmers too.