KARACHI: The country’s commercial banks have given Rs515.9 billion agricultural loans during the financial year 2015-16.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan, credit disbursement in the last fiscal year was 31.8 per cent higher than Rs391 billion disbursed in FY14. Banks also surpassed the indicative disbursement target of Rs500 billion set by the central bank’s Agricultural Credit Advisory Committee.
The data showed that growth was also recorded in the agri outstanding portfolio which stands at Rs 335.2 billion at end June, 2015 showing an increase of Rs.45 Billion (up 15.5 percent) compared with the last year position of Rs 290.3 billion.
The central bank said that agri credit target of Rs500 billion in FY15 was ambitious by any standards, given the higher risk perception of banks about agri financing and volatility in the prices of agri produce.
In addition to achieving the indicative agri credit target, SBP implemented all the budgetary initiatives and projects in collaboration with banks during the year. These include enhancement of the scope of Crop Loan Insurance up to 25 acres, rollout of Livestock Insurance for small farmers, launch of Credit Guarantee Scheme for small and marginalized farmers, introduction of Warehouse Receipts Financing and loans for solar tube-wells, etc.
A detailed review of banks’ performance for 2014-15 reveals that five major banks collectively disbursed agri loans of Rs 262.9 billion or 104.1 percent of their annual target of Rs 252.5 billion which is higher by 34.5 percent from Rs 195.5 billion disbursed during the corresponding period last year.
Amongst the five major banks, HBL has achieved 113 percent of its annual target, MCB achieved 102.6 percent, UBL 101.4 percent, ABL 101.2 percent and NBP achieve 100.1 percent of its individual annual target. Among specialized banks, ZTBL disbursed Rs 95.8 billion or 106.5 percent of its annual target of Rs 90.0 billion while PPCBL has disbursed Rs 10.5 billion achieving 91.2 percent against its target of Rs 11.5 billion during FY 2014-15.
Fifteen Domestic Private Banks as a group achieved 94.1 percent of its target. Within this group Faysal bank, Bank Alfalah, JS bank, Bank of Khyber, Bank of Punjab and Standard Chartered Bank were the top performers surpassing their allocated annual targets. However, Summit bank achieved 99.6 percent, Habib Metropolitan 96.2 percent, Askari 86 percent, Soneri bank 85.8 percent, NIB 85.3 percent, Sindh bank 80.9 percent, Bank Al Habib 72.1 percent whereas Silk bank could only achieve 63.1 percent of their individual annual targets.
