Arunachal Apex bank returns to business

Itanagar, Oct 18 (UNI) The Arunachal Pradesh Cooperative Apex Bank, revived last year after remaining defunct for more than three years following a loan scam, is back in business.

The bank, during the past few months, has started disbursing loan amounting to Rs 30.5 lakh to government employees and the Arunachal Pradesh Consumers Cooperative Federation Limited here for procurement of public distribution system (PDS) items, according to bank's managing director (MD) Tarin Dakpe.

The state-owned bank with 32 branches went defunct after a multi-crore scam during 2004 which resulted in a liquidity crisis.

However, it reopened during August last year after Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu made an all-out effort in bringing an amount of Rs 225 crore from the National Hydro Electric Power Corporation(NHPC) as advance against royalty payment on free power to be paid to the state government after commissioning of all the projects being executed in the state by the central PSU.

While the bank has recovered Rs 75 crore of the total outstanding loans of Rs 204 crore, the depositors put in over Rs 21.83 crore through 12,016 new accounts during last year.

The improved financial health of the bank was recognized by the Reserve Bank of India which revoked the restriction on the bank's transaction imposed under section 11 of the RBI Act, Mr Dakpe informed adding, the bank had claimed Rs 2.81 crore from the central government under debt waiver and debt relief scheme 2008.

As per the directive of the chief minister, Mr Dakpe said efforts had been intensified to recover all outstanding loans. ''All the 32 branches throughout the state are fully functional now, which has helped us collect such huge deposits and loans in agriculture and government sponsored schemes are being processed,'' he disclosed.

The bank has total deposits of over Rs 76 crore and liquidity position of over Rs 250 crore wheras its CDR (credit deposit ratio) stood at 172 per cent as on March 31, 2008. Moreover, the bank has covered deposits under the Deposit Insurance Credit Gurantee Corporation (DICGC), a unit of the RBI, for their security, he added.

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