Nabard to expand its long-term lending to Rs 80,000 crore in FY19 to improve rural economy

Mumbai: Development finance institution NABARD on Wednesday said it aims to increase its long-term on-lending or refinance portfolio to about Rs 80,000 crore in the current fiscal as part of its effort to improve the rural economy. The institution’s on-lending in 2017-18 was Rs 65,000 crore. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), that earned a surplus of Rs 2,951 crore for the fiscal ended March 2018, plans to raise Rs 40,000 crore from the bond borrowing. The bank, with a borrowing of Rs 33,000 crore in 2017-18, has been one of the top three borrowers in the market. The mobilised fund was utilised in projects aimed at rural development related to improving grain storage facility, rural roads, dairy development and irrigation facility, NABARD Chairman HK Bhanwala told reporters in Mumbai. [caption id=“attachment_235421” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “The long-term refinance portfolio has constantly seen improvement. It stood at Rs 53,500 crore in FY17, which improved to Rs 65,000 crore by the end of March 2018. Now we are looking at refinancing portfolio of Rs 75,000 crore to Rs 80,000 crore in 2018-19,” he added. While announcing annual performance of the bank, he said, “we are a zero-net-NPA (non-performing asset) institution with 18 per cent capital adequacy. The government infused Rs 3,800 crore last fiscal.” NABARD’s balance sheet grew 17 per cent to Rs 4.06 lakh crore in the fiscal ended March, 2018, as against Rs 3.48 lakh crore in FY17. Loans and advances rose 15 per cent to Rs 3.54 lakh crore in the period compared to Rs 3.08 lakh crore in the same period ended March 2017. The development finance institution’s long-term refinance stood at Rs 1,22,688 crore, up 17 per cent in the fiscal 2018, compared to Rs 1,05,209 crore. Against the target of Rs 10 lakh crore, the actual agricultural credit flow during FY18 stood at Rs 10.46 lakh crore as on February 28, 2018. Loans under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIFD) saw an increase of 9 per cent to Rs 1.10 lakh crore during the year as against Rs 1 lakh crore in the previous fiscal. Long-term irrigation fund grew 125 per cent to Rs 20,447 crore in the period from Rs 9,086 crore. The bank has been a constant performer for the last four years, he said, adding that the net owned-fund witnessed a jump from Rs 21,857 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 38,345 crore in 2017-18 and investment credit grew from 54,924 crore to Rs 1.22 lakh crore in the same tenure. During the period, profit of the institution rose from Rs 1,860 crore in FY14 to Rs 2,951 crore in FY18 and productivity per employee almost doubled to Rs 56 crore in FY18 from Rs 30 crore in FY14. Nabard spent Rs 293.79 crore under the Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) towards a host of initiatives like financial literacy camps, demonstration of banking technology through ATM vans, centres for financial literacy and various other types of capacity building projects.