Advisor Umang Narula chaired the sixth meeting of the Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committee (UTLBC) of Ladakh for the quarter ended June 2022 to 21st September 2022 at Hotel Dragon conference hall on September 22.

Assistant General Manager/Convenor UTLBC, UT Ladakh Tsering Morup gave a detailed presentation on the position of districts and banks regarding their Credit Deposit (CD) Ratio. The Chairman was informed that the total amount of deposits as on June 30, 2022, stood at ₹ 7590.22 as compared to ₹6589.96 crore as on June 30, 2021, with a deposit growth of 15,17% on a year-on-year basis. The total credit as of June 30, 2022 stood at ₹3224.35 crore as compared to ₹2489.90 crore as on June 30, 2021, with credit growth of 29.49% on a year-on-year basis in UT Ladakh. The CD Ratio has improved to 42% as compared to 38 % in the previous year.

Advisor Narula stated that there is a significant potential for commercial greenhouses in Ladakh and suggested that NABARD and banks can come up with good lending schemes in this area. He appreciated the cooperation received from the banks in opening new branches and bringing new products to Ladakh after the new UT was formed.

Regional Director (J&K), Reserve Bank of India, Kamal P Patnaik concurred and added that IRDA has huge potential for green finance and exhorted that potential entrepreneurs should be identified for green projects and trained to achieve new heights.

Commissioner/Secretary, Social &Tribal Welfare Dept, Padma Angmo stated that more outreach programmes should be conducted in mission mode to evolve a workable model for banking at the village level and inculcate banking habits among the rural masses.

Additional/Secretary Finance Rajat Kumar stated that no system integration for maintaining multiple accounts is in place and flagged the need for robust system integration.

Regarding the digitization of revenue records, Principal/Secretary, Dr Pawan Kotwal stated that work is under process for digitization and hoped for positive results within a year. Along with digitization, a CORS network-based survey of the lands is also planned which if successful will be the first in the country.

A detailed discussion on the agenda items took place in the meeting viz. status of KCCs issued; overview of credit disbursement; priority sector credit disbursement; nonpriority sector credit disbursement; district/sector-wise performance under ACP; performance of all banks under Mudra scheme; street vendor scheme and NPA position of UT Ladakh, etc.

DGM, State Bank of India, Admin Office, Jammu, Pawan Kumar while giving the vote of thanks assured the Chair, on behalf of UTLBC, that the targets set in the meeting, particularly in the agriculture sector would be achieved by the banks. He said that the banks would put extra effort to increase the CD ratio in UT Ladakh and in the next meeting they would have achieved positive results.

The meeting was attended by Administrative Secretaries; Deputy Commissioner, Leh; Nodal Officer for Ladakh UTLBC; Additional Secretary, Finance; Directors of concerned departments; Regional Director (J&K), Reserve Bank of India, R.O. Jammu; General Manager, State Bank of India, Local H.O. Chandigarh; DGM, State Bank of India, Admin Office Jammu; DGM, RBO-V, State Bank of India, Admin Office, Jammu, and representatives of the member banks and financial institutions.