National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has projected a credit potential of Rs 36,292 crore for the state of Assam for the financial year 2022-23.

NABARD launched the State Focus Paper today for the financial year 2022-23 which is the consolidation of exploitable district wise realistic potential, both in physical and financial terms in the state of Assam.

Focusing on the priority sector and with the objective of ensuring integrated and sustainable rural prosperity in the state, NABARD has projected a credit potential of Rs 36,292 crore for the state of Assam for the financial year 2022-23 in the State Credit Seminar held on 8th December 2021. The credit potential is 12% higher than the previous year.

Of the total projected credit potential, as much as Rs 18755 crore (52%) is towards Agriculture and Allied activities, Rs 12952 crore (36%) is towards MSME sector, Rs 1388 crore for Informal Credit – SHGs / JLGs and Rs 3197 crore for Housing, Education and other Sectors.

The State Focus Paper was released at Guwahati by Finance Minister Ajanta Neog, in presence of Additional Chief Secretary P K Borthakur, Regional Director, RBI, Sanjeev Singha and CGM SBI, R S Ramesh etc.

The credit potential estimated in the State Focus Paper will be used as a base for preparation of Annual Credit Plan for priority sector lending of the state by financial institutions for the year 2022-23.

Baiju Kurup, Chief General Manager, NABARD informed that seminar deliberated upon the demand of credit at the grass root level besides taking cognizance of the policy interventions and programmes initiated by NABARD, Financial Institutions, the State as well as Central Governments in various sectors. It was also informed that expert’s views were taken into account for meeting the gap in augmenting productivity by way of agri- reforms, transformation, post-harvest management, collectivisation of agricultural produce, value addition and organising farmers into Farmer Producers’ Organisation (FPO), which may help in creating local level commodity-specific value chains to enable small and marginal farmers realize optimal value of their produce, through better price discovery mechanisms.