Other States - Rajasthan   

State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur's business up

Special Correspondent

All 832 branches have been brought under "anywhere banking" facility

JAIPUR: The State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) recorded an all-time increase of Rs.6496 crores in business during 2005-06 to touch a total of Rs.37,790 crores. The bank's advances shot up by Rs.3840 crores during the period to register a 31.3 per cent growth against the 29.9 per cent growth of all scheduled commercial banks. At the end of March this year the bank's advances stood at Rs.16,096 crores.

However, SBBJ's net profits fell from the previous year's Rs.205.65 crores to Rs.145.03 crores this year. The operating profit of the bank for the year 2005-06 came down to Rs.592.37 crores against Rs.729.64 crores in 2004-05. The aggregate deposits went up by 15.5 per cent during the period to touch Rs.21457 crores. The net interest income of the bank increased to Rs.992.90 crore from Rs.868.91 crores in 2004-05.

The bank's Managing Director, S.K.Bhattacharyya, who announced the annual financial results of the bank here, attributed the decline in net profits to reduction in returns from sale of investments, reduction in Government commission, increase in provision for staff, introduction of fringe benefit tax and increase in provision for standard assets.

"Depreciation in core banking has been enormous. Operating expenses went up due to computerisation in core banking. The electricity expenses also contributed to the decline in profits," Mr.Bhattacharyya noted.

He observed that the previous year's high profit was also due to the sale of securities in 2004-05. "In the sale year you have a bonanza," he noted.

The bank's efforts to bring down the non-performing assets yielded good results during the period, Mr.Bhattacharyya informed. The gross NPAs came down to Rs.388.73 crore from Rs.399.51 crores the previous year. The bank's net NPA ratio stood at 1.18 per cent in March 2006. The bank has declared a dividend of 65 per cent (Rs.65) per share. Its capital adequacy is at 12.08 per cent.

Mr.Bhattacharyya said the bank had been able to double its credit flow to the agriculture sector in two years as per the policy package announced by the Union Minister for Finance in June 2004. The agriculture credit was at 18.04 per cent, which was above the 18 per cent benchmark prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India, he noted. The bank issued 78,532 Kisan Credit Cards during 2005-06 taking the number of cards issued by it to 3.5 lakhs.

During 2005-06 SBBJ brought all its 832 branches under the core banking to facilitate "anywhere banking". It also installed 40 ATMs during the period taking the number of ATMs to 291.

Mr.Bhattacharyya said in the current year, which has been declared "Year of Customer Care", the bank would focus on retail loans, financing self-help groups and on tourism.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur's business up

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu