MINUTES

OF

132nd MEETING OF

STATE LEVEL BANKERS’ COMMITTEE, PUNJAB

Held on 14.05.2015

AT

HOTEL MOUNT VIEW,

CHANDIGARH

CONVENER:

PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK

STATE LEVEL BANKERS’ COMMITTEE

PUNJAB, CHANDIGARH

132ndMEETING OF SLBC PUNJAB

The 132nd Meeting of the State Level Bankers’ Committee, Punjab was held on 14.05.2015 at Hotel Mount View, Sector-17, Chandigarh to review the performance of banking system in the State of Punjab for the period ended March 2015. Shri Adaish Partap Singh Kairon, Hon’ble Minister for Food & Supply & IT, Punjab was the Chief Guest. Shri Gauri Shanker, Managing Director and CEO of Punjab National Bank presided over the meeting. The list of participants is as per Annexure.

Shri Harpal Singh, Field General Manager, PNB Convener, SLBC extended a warm & hearty welcome to Shri Adaish Partap Singh Kairon, Hon’ble Minister for Food & Supply & IT, Punjab, Shri Gauri Shanker, Managing Director and CEO, Punjab National Bank and Chairman of the meeting, Shri Gulab Singh, Deputy Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Shri Anjani Mishara, Deputy General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, Shri Naresh Gupta, Chief General Manager, NABARD (Punjab) Chandigarh, P M Ghole, Chief General Manager, NABARD (Punjab) Chandigarh who has just joined at Chandigarh, Senior Officers from State Government, Banks, Financial Institutions, various Corporations members from press & media and representatives from LIC , GIC, Oil marketing companies, Department of Telecommunication who are attending SLBC for the first time and are important members for implementation of PMJDY.

Shri Harpal Singh in his welcome address, thanked Shri Adaish Pratap Singh Kairon, Hon’ble Minister for Food and Civil Supplies & IT for his benign presence in the meeting. Shri Singh informed the august house that Shri Kairon is the longest serving minister in the State of Punjab, a great visionary and always contributing to keep the state on the fore front at National level under various sectors. Briefing the house about his earlier assignment, Shri Singh informed that in his earlier assignment as Finance and Taxation Minister of Punjab, Shri Kairon had won accolades for implementation of VAT as well as Computerized Information Collection System at State Border which has resulted in considerable increase in revenue collection of the State.

Shri Singh also briefed the house that Sh. Kairon as Minister of Food and Supplies of the state has implemented the KISAN ARTHIYA INFORMATION AND ONLINE REMITTANCE NETWORK, thus making Punjab the FIRST state in the country to implement the Food grain Payment system by SWAP of Debit Card which resulted in the benefits to all the stakeholder i.e. Govt. of Punjab, Procurement Agencies, Arthias and Farmers. He has also been instrumental in setting up of Fully computerized control network for Paddy procurement in the state.

Shri Singh further apprised the house the achievements of Punjab State in the PMJDY scheme and conveyed his thanks to the State Govt. for the support and guidance provided to the banking fraternity by which this task has been accomplished.

Touching upon the announcement of three Special Security Schemes i.e PMSBY,PMJJY, APY in this year’s Union Budget by Hon’ble Finance Minister to take Jan Dhan to next level of Jan Suraksha, Shri Harpal Singh apprised the house that these initiatives are aimed at providing affordable universal access to essential social security protection in a convenient manner linked to auto-debit facility from bank accounts.

Shri Singh further apprised the house that during the meeting, the performance of banks in the State of Punjab under key parameters for the period ended March 2015 would be reviewed besides other important issues listed in the agenda. He further mentioned that timely submission of correct SLBC data by stakeholders is a pre-requisite for adhering to the schedule of meetings. He requested that SLBC data duly checked/compared with previous data be made available to SLBC Secretariat by 15th of the close of each quarter.

He thanked the stakeholders to SLBC forum especially bankers and LDMs and urged upon them to continue with the same spirit in future as well.

Shri Naresh Gupta, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Chandigarh in his address to the house mentioned about the importance of PMJDY and congratulated the State Government and the bankers for the achievement under the scheme. Shri Gupta appraised the house about the damage to the crops due to untimely rains and suggested to take steps for participation in the crop insurance scheme. Shri Gupta desired that State Govt should take initiative and arrange a meeting with Agriculture Insurance Corporation, major banks, NABARD and RBI for initiating the process of starting crop insurance in the State to minimize the loss on account of natural calamity. Touching upon the issues which cropped up during the recent visit of Hon’ble Governor RBI to one of the village in Mohali, Shri Gupta informed that there is a need for rationalization of formation of SHGs procedure and credit needs of SHGs. The procedure for linkage of SHG groups should be simplified and there is a need for common and simplified documents for credit linkage of SHG. The procedure for linkage of SHG/JLG groups should be such that on a single visit all the formalities for credit linkage will be completed.

Shri Gupta further requested bankers to give more attention to following areas of concern:

·  Coverage of Small and Marginal farmers while making advance under various schemes.

·  Credit linkage of remaining 10000 Self Help Groups & formation of more JLGs.

·  Efforts are required for achievement of ACP targets in the districts where the same has not been achieved.

Shri Gupta apprised the house that State Govt. has adopted 50 villages in the state for providing all basic facilities in these villages. NABARD has conducted survey in 30 villages for identifying the services to be provided in these villages. Shri Gupta requested the banks to come forward for coverage of these villages under CSR activity so that all the villages can be covered jointly by State Govt, NABARD and Banks.

Shri P. M. Ghole, who has just taken over as CGM NABARD, Punjab congratulated all the banks for surpassing Agriculture targets and apprise the house the importance of capital formation in agriculture. He requested all the member banks to take steps for increasing the share of capital formation in agriculture. He requested the member banks to send the utilization certificate, wherever pending, immediately to NABARD and requested all the stake holders to extend the same support for upliftment of the state.

Shri Anjani Mishra, Deputy General Manager, RBI in his address mentioned about the visit of Hon’ble Governor RBI in adopted village at Mohali. He expressed the concern of the RBI for poor customer service as customer has to visit many times for getting his work done. Shri Misra suggested that help desk should be maintained at every branch. Shri Anjani Mishra showed his concern regarding functioning of BLBC scheme. He informed the house that the meetings of BLBC are not held regularly, participation level in these meetings is very low. He suggested that the meeting of BLBC should be convened in the 1st month of quarter itself so that the issues if any can be resolved within the quarter and pending issues if any can be discussed in the SLBC meetings.

Action: LDMs

Shri Gulab Singh, Director, Deptt of Financial Services, MoF, GoI in his address through Video Conference congratulated the Banks for issuing Rupay cards in 95% accounts opened under PMJDY and for Aadhaar seeding in 74% accounts. He further mentioned that the position of Bank Mitra is not up to the mark as many banks are not paying minimum remuneration of Rs.5000/- and are not checking the record of Bank Mitras as advised by Ministry of Finance for checking the same by the nearby branches. Shri Gulab Singh stated that the accounts which are opened with zero balance should be monitored and account holders should be encouraged to do transaction in the account.

Action: Member banks.

Shri Gauri Shankar, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank and Chairman of the meeting in his address apprised the house of following initiatives taken by RBI On8th April,2015 in the First Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement 2015-2016, RBI announced the following;-

  • keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 7.5 per cent;
  • keep the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks unchanged at 4.0 per cent of net demand and time liability (NDTL);
  • continue to provide liquidity under overnight repos at 0.25 per cent of bank-wise NDTL at the LAF repo rate and liquidity under 7-day and 14-day term repos of up to 0.75 per cent of NDTL of the banking system through auctions;
  • continue with daily variable rate repos and reverse repos to smooth liquidity.

Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF will remain unchanged at 6.5 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 8.5 percent.

Shri Shanker further apprised the house the achievements of Punjab State in the PMJDY scheme and conveyed his thanks to the State Govt. for the support and guidance provided to the banking fraternity by which this make worthy task has been accomplished.

Touching upon the announcement of three Special Security Schemes i.e PMSBY, PMJJY & APY in this year’s Union Budget by Hon’ble Finance Minister to take Jan Dhan to next level of Jan Suraksha, Shri Gauri Shanker apprised the house that these initiatives are aimed at providing affordable universal access to essential social security protection in a convenient manner linked to auto-debit facility from bank accounts.

All the schemes would be linked with the bank accounts of beneficiary with the provision of auto deduction of premium.

PMJJBY and PMSBY are world's largest schemes of its kind ever launched and provide accidental and death coverage to the citizens at minimal cost.

Shri Shanker, while presenting the report card of performance of banks, expressed satisfaction over the achievements of banking system in the State of Punjab and assured the State Government, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India, RBI and other stakeholders, of full cooperation on behalf of Bankers towards strengthening and uplifting the socio-economic conditions of the people of the State.

Shri Shri Adaish Pratap Singh Kairon, Hon’ble Minister Food, Civil Supplies & IT in his address mentioned that he was privileged to be present in this meeting and thanked all the Bankers for their contribution in the growth of the economy of the state and active participation in making the Online food grain payments a grand success wherein annual payments of Rs. 40000 Crores flow through banking channels. He stated that through huge food grain production the state of Punjab in not only contributing 45% of food grain requirements for the beneficiaries of National Food Security Act across the country but is also consumer of 600 million Jute Bags annually which indirectly contributes to the economy of the Jute growing farmers in other states like West Bengal. He stressed upon the Bankers to develop a mechanism of Direct payments of food grains to farmers in their Bank accounts for better economic growth.

Shri Kairon also informed that more than 85% Aadhar Data of PDS beneficiaries has been captured and the state is moving towards use of RUPAY cards issued in Jan Dhan Yojna for payments of food grains under PDS system. He also stressed upon the Bankers to assist the students by granting Education Loans liberally specially to the girl child so that even the next generation gets benefit of the same.

Thereafter agenda for the meeting was taken for discussion and following Action points emerged:-

Item No.1 / Confirmation of minutes of 131st Meeting of State Level Bankers' Committee (Punjab) held on 10.02.2015.

The House confirmed the e-mailed/circulated minutes of above said meeting.

Item No. 2 / Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

The item was for information of the house and no action point emerged.

Item No. 2(ii) / Bank Mitra & Infrastructure- Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

The Bankwise position in appointment of Bank Mitras was reviewed. The banks who has not appointed the Bank Mitras as yet were advised to appoint the same immediately and the banks who has not provided the district wise list of appointment of Bank Mitras to Convener Bank were again advised to upload the same on the Banks web site and send the list to Convener bank the for uploading the same on SLBC web-site.

Shri Gauri Shankar, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank and Chairman of the meeting apprised the house that the foremost step in implementation of Bank Mitra model is to provide timely payment to Bank Mitras. Further, staff working at the branches should be sensitized for providing cooperation to the Bank Mitras.

Member Banks were advised to take note of the above observations and ensure to implement the same at the bank level for successful implementation of Bank Mitra Model.

Action: Member Banks.

Item No. 2(iii) / -Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) for accidental death insurance.
-Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) for life insurance cover.

While deliberating on the ingredients of the schemes, the house was apprised that the people/beneficiaries at large are ignorant about the fact that benefit of insurance will be available only in one account. The house resolved that an MIS should be developed to avoid issuance of multiple insurance policies.