National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Chairman Govindarajulu Chintala is apparently floored by the Nadu-Nedu programme of the State Government. The NABARD is likely to sanction ₹2,000 crore for the Nadu-Nedu as sought by the government.
“I am very much impressed with the Nadu-Nedu programme. The NABARD has already sanctioned ₹1,200 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund during the current fiscal. There shouldn't be any problem to sanction ₹1,500 crore to ₹2,000 crore during the next financial year,” he said.
The allocation to the RIDF was increased to ₹40,000 crore from ₹30,000 crore in the recent Union Budget. More than 48% allocations usually go to the southern States. The Telugu speaking States tap 10 to 15% of the RIDF funds. Given these conditions, it would not be difficult to sanction ₹2,000 crore to improve the condition of schools, he explained.
Mr. Chintala was interacting with the media at a programme organised by AP Working Journalists Federation on Friday.
NPAs
To a question on NPAs and classification of the account of Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, the NABARD Chairman said the NPAs was a regular process. The NABARD could collect ₹250 crore from the Reliance out of about ₹1,100 crore. The process was on, he said.
When asked whether the NABARD would be able achieve the set target for agricultural credit, he said ₹15 lakh crore was the target for the current fiscal. So far, more than ₹13.8 lakh crore worth credit was disbursed. It was not an issue to achieve the remaining portion, he said.
To another question, Mr. Chintala confirmed that NABARD would hold 10% share in Ferbine, the Tata-promoted company. The RBI has invited applications from the NUE (new umbrella entities) licence.
The Ferbine is being set up as a national payments infrastructure rivalling National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The experience of NABARD in rural areas would be useful to the proposed Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Also, competitiveness will develop in e-commerce and online retail transactions, he said.
