RBI suggests increasing CDR in NE states

Agartala, Jan 8 (UNI) Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has finally asked nationalised banks in the NE to increase credit-deposit ratio(CDR) for promoting balanced growth of development of the country.

RBI officials here said that CDR of the banks in Northeastern region remained lowest in the country, while advised the banks to attain a CDR of 60 per cent in rural and semi-urban branches in NE.

Referring to Reserve Bank's report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India, 2007, the state Commerce Minister Tapan Chakraborty said that the incremental CDR in North East India registered a decline from 31.2 per cent in March 1997 to 26.8 per cent in March 2003.

The CDR, which is the proportion of loan-assets created by banks from the deposits received, is an indicator of credit absorption in a particular area and to ensure adequate credit flow and to reduce wide disparity among regions, RBI suggested to maintain balance between deposit and credit.

Mr Chakraborty, however, stated that while the all-India CDR rose sharply to 75 per cent in March, 2007, from 72.4 per cent in March 2006, there were wide variations across various states and within regions.

In the eastern region, the CDR in West Bengal, which was below 50 per cent up to 2004, rose to 62.6 per cent in March 2007, he said referring RBI report and added at present in Tripura CDR was 31 per cent while credit amount was Rs 1,077 Crore against the deposited amount of Rs 3,408 Crore in 226 branches of nationalised banks.

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