BELLARY: The Pragathi Grameena Bank has recorded a net profit of Rs. 55.21 crore, registering a 30 per cent growth rate over the previous year's profit of Rs. 42.18 crore, according to Vincent D'Silva, chairman of the bank.

Speaking of the bank's performance for 2006-07, he told presspersons here on Thursday that the bank's total business had exceeded the Rs. 4,000-crore mark for the first time (Rs. 4,031.48 crore). The bank came into existence with a new name by amalgamating the four regional rural banks (RRBs), Tungabhadra in Bellary, Raichur and Koppal, Chitradurga, Sahyadri, Kolar, all sponsored by Canara Bank in mid 2005. All 351 branches of the bank, spread over seven districts, had earned profit, he said.

Mr. D'Silva said the bank, besides achieving all objectives of amalgamation, had emerged as the second largest RRB in the country in terms of loans issued and net profit earned.

Before amalgamation, three out of the four erstwhile RRBs had a credit-deposit (CD) ratio of 76.85 to 80.12. After amalgamation the CD ratio has touched 98.27 which indicated that the bank had been taking steps to bridge the credit gap of the command area.

He said that the bank had achieved 118 per cent of the total target allocated in the Annual Action Plan (AAP) of all the seven districts with advances under priority sector being to the tune of Rs. 1,704.28 crore, registering 84.15 percent as against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stipulation being 60 per cent.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPA) level stood at 4.06 percent and Net NPA at 2.29 percent and this, according to him, was mainly because of 36 out of the 46 taluks relling under drought conditions. The Gandhi Nagar branch in Bellary was the first RRB in South India to exceed the Rs. 100-crore business mark, he said. The bank had financed Rs. 21.36 crore for construction of 477 godowns with a storage capacity of Rs. 1.52 lakh tonnes of foodgrains and had earned the distinction of having sanctioned highest number of godowns among all the banks in the country. The bank had formed 38,336 self-help groups whose membership exceeds 5.75 lakh as at the end of March 2007 and savings of more than Rs. 34 crore had been mobilised through them. The bank has received second prize at the State-level as the Best Performing Bank under RRBs category instituted by NABARD. The Hsahalli branch in Bellary district had shown exemplary performance under the formation of SHGs and credit linkage.

The branch had credit linked more than 500 SHGs and has been bagging first prize as the Best Performing Branch for the seventh time in succession. Mr. D'Silva said that during the current year, he hoped to reach a total business of Rs. 5,000 crore by March 2008 and increasing the clientele base to 25 lakhs from the present 21.94 lakh, earning a profit of Rs. 75 crores and bringing down the gross NPA to 2.91 per cent.

The bank had plans to open nine branches, an extension counter, set up 25 ATMs, a currency chest in Chitradurga, enter foreign exchange business, market mutual fund units, sell life insurance products on referral basis (at present, the bank sells non-life insurance products on a referral basis), he said.

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