PNB financing hydel projects in HP

Shimla, Aug 26 (UNI) Punjab National Bank (PNB) is financing several hydro-power projects in Himachal Pradesh besides playing an important role in state's agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and tourism, bank's zonal manager K I Singh said today.

''The Bank had extended a loan of Rs 75 crore to the Jai Pradesh's Baspa hydro-power project, besides Rs 53 crore finance to the Larji hydel power project,'' he told reporters, after a press conference, here.

Mr Singh said the bank had already released a loan of Rs 53 crore for the Larji project against a sanctioned amount of Rs 100 crore.

A consortium of the banks was financing the 1,000 MW Karchum-Wangtoo hydel project in Kinnuar district of the state by providing a sum of Rs 200 crore to the Jai Prakash industries, he said.

Denying that the share of the public sector banks was decreasing, he said their share in fact had increased to 82 per cent from 80 per cent in the last five years, while the share of the private sector banks had decreased during the period.

The Bank's Zonal Manager said this was despite the entry of several private foreign banks and other financial institutions in the country.

Mr Singh said even its rural credit had shown an upward trend in the last few years, proving that it was playing an important role in agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and tourism sectors.

Highlighting the bank's ''PNB-Tax Saver Fixed Deposit Scheme'', he said it would provide substantial tax benefits to its customers under Section 80C (2)(xxi) of the Income Tax Act to a maximum deposit of Rs one lakh.

He said according to the Indian Banks Association (IBA) survey, 98 per cent customers were satisfied with it operations and functioning, leaving other nationalised banks far behind.

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