The Bihar government has decided not to bank with ICICI bank in view of the low credit deposit (CD) ratio of the bank in the state.
“We have directed all the state government departments not to deposit any money with the ICICI Bank. It was very unfortunate that despite our repeated reminders, the ICICI Bank made no effort to improve its credit disbursal track record,” Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi who also holds the finance portfolio told the Vidhan Sabha on Monday. “The quantum of loan disbursed by the ICICI Bank was much short of the expected amount. The banks are supposed to disburse loans in proportion to the amounts deposited by the people in the banks. And the ICICI Bank which should have disbursed a loan of Rs 296 crore, managed to distribute a measly amount of only Rs 27.08 crore by way of loan. This is just not acceptable to us,” Modi said. Modi, who was replying to a question by Achyutanand of the LJP, said the government has time and again raised the issue of declining level of the CD ratio of some of the banks at the state level bankers committee (SLBC) meetings. “But, all this did not create the salutary impact. We specifically brought this to the notice of the ICICI bank, but it failed to take necessary corrective action. Finally, we asked all the departments not to deposit any money with any branch of the ICICI bank,” said Modi. The bank has 16 branches in the state. According to Modi, the banks did not evince any interest in disbursing loans to small entrepreneurs nor did it extend educational loans to the students. The bank issued Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to only 168 farmers, said Modi. Entrepreneurs and business community in Patna has welcomed the decision. Ajit Singh, an entrepreneur, has exhorted upon Biharis all over the country not to bank with ICICI. “This is the only way you can teach them a lesson,” he said. “The bank’s bias against Bihar can be established from the fact that they do not issue credit cards here while in Mumbai and Delhi they would chase me to offer multiple cards,” Singh said. Earlier, the Bihar Chamber of Commerce (BCC) president PK Agarwal had termed the commercial banks as the biggest stumbling block in the economic growth of the State Dhirendra Singh
