Patna: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said on Tuesday that banks in Bihar have shown a strong performance on the annual credit plan and have disbursed loans of Rs 73,215 crore till the end of the third quarter of financial year 2017-18.

The banks, he said, are expected to disburse around Rs 1 lakh crore as loans for various sectors by the end of this financial year, which would be a big achievement for the state which saw a loan disbursement of just Rs 10,762 in 2007-08.

"Banks have disbursed Rs 73,215 crore till 2017 December-end against an ACP target of Rs 1.10 lakh crore this financial year. It is around 66.6 per cent of the target. I have requested the banks to achieve 95 per cent of the target. We hope that the figures will reach Rs 1 lakh crore by the time the financial year ends," Modi said.

He was speaking after chairing the 63rd state level bankers' committee meeting here, where finance department principal secretary Sujata Chaturvedi, urban development principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad and senior bankers were present.

However, the meeting also revealed that that Bihar has a bank branch per 17,000 population in comparison to the national average of a branch per every 11,000 people.

There are 6,876 bank branches in Bihar, including 3490 rural branches, 1,966 semi-urban branches and 1,420 urban branches.

As per the Reserve Bank of India's new directions, villages with a population of over 5,000 and without any bank branch have to be identified and a banking outlet has to be made available to them.

"Altogether 602 such villages devoid of any banking system have been identified in Bihar. Banking outlets have been opened at 370 of them, and banks have assured that the rest will be inaugurated by the end of this financial year," Modi said.

He also said that 15,584 banking correspondents are active in Bihar to facilitate loans and other financial facilities.

The credit-deposit ratio in Bihar has slipped to 41.67 in the third quarter of the current financial. It was 42.22 during the second quarter, and 43.94 in the 2016-17 financial year.

"The ratio is less than 30 per cent in districts like Bhojpur, Saran, Siwan and Gopalganj. Banks need to improve the situation," Modi added.

He expressed dissatisfaction with loan disbursement by banks under the state government's student credit card scheme, and pointed out that loans worth just Rs 73.92 crore were disbursed against approved loans worth Rs 445.89 crore.

Around 3.51 crore bank accounts have been opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which have a cumulative balance of Rs 6,403 crore and only 2.96 crore Jan Dhan accounts are operational, Modi said.