AFC chairman Abhijit Barooah in Guwahati on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, July 25: After making a profit in the financial year 2006-07 for the first time in 14 years, the Assam Financial Corporation (AFC) has chalked out an ambitious plan to lend Rs 700 crore to small and medium scale industrial units in the region in the next five years.

Addressing a news conference here today, the chairman of the state financial corporation, Abhijit Barooah, said the turnaround achieved last year was being carried forward and the corporation would further consolidate its position in the next few years.

Announcing the results for 2007-08 at the financial corporation’s 54th annual general meeting earlier in the day, Barooah said it had made a record profit of Rs 6.05 crore after tax — the highest in the history of the corporation since its inception in 1954.

The previous best was Rs 73 lakh in 1989-90.

“Largescale lending will commence as soon as an approval is received from the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi).The current year’s sanction and disbursement targets have been fixed at Rs 70 crore which is the highest in the history of the corporation,” Barooah said.

Besides Assam, the AFC also provides assistance to industrial units in Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura.

In 2006-07 after a long gap of 14 years, the corporation made a profit of Rs 0.41 crore.

Loans sanctioned in the last two years had not turned into non-performing assets, Barooah said.

“The corporation continued its drive to recover due amount from the borrowers,” he said and added that Rs 8.41 crore had been collected through the loan recovery drive.

“The net non-performing assets of the corporation is now 2.77 per cent,” Barooah said. He said the corporation was one of the first public sector corporations in the state to have introduced performance-linked incentives for its employees to meet targets. According to Barooah, during the year, 20 staff training programmes were conducted.

All the branch offices have been linked to the head office through an online network.