Bengal to upgrade 250 PACS to banking outlets

 Kolkata, Feb 12: Keeping the upcoming panchayat elections in view, West Bengal government is going to upgrade 250 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) to banking outlets in the first phase with an objective to facilitate more credit to farmers, an official said on Monday. According to the official, commercial banks’ credit advance to agriculture and allied sector has been “dismally low” in the state leading to a low credit-deposit ratio in the eastern state. In fact, the tiol Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (bard), which unveiled “State Focus Paper for 2018-19” and “Area Development Scheme for West Bengal 2018-2023” on Monday, showed ground-level credit flow to the agriculture sector in West Bengal had not achieved the targets during 2011-12 to 2016-17. “Total credit-deposit ratio on an average is around 70 per cent in the state, which is less than the tiol average. The main reason is the reluctance of the banking sector to advance credit to agriculture and its allied sectors, which is one of the priority sector lending areas. In some districts, the ratio is as poor as 40 per cent. (IANS)