S.K. Bhattacharyya (right), managing director of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, with P. Ramkumar, general manager (operations), in Calcutta on Saturday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, July 30: State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) has jacked up its target for total deposits and advances for 2005-06 to Rs 40,000 crore from Rs 38,700 crore set before following a more-than-expected business in the first three months of the current financial year.

“Our initial target for the current fiscal was Rs 38,700 crore but we have revised it to Rs 40,000 crore,” said S.K. Bhattacharyya, managing director, SBBJ.

The bank’s total deposits and advances grew to Rs 32,016 crore as on June 30 from Rs 31,294 crore on March 31.

“We are eyeing a net profit of Rs 344 crore for the current fiscal compared with Rs 205.65 crore achieved in the last fiscal,” added Bhattacharyya. For the first quarter of the current fiscal, SBBJ has achieved a net profit of Rs 20.29 crore.

“Our main focus will be on education and housing loans,” said Bhattacharyya. He added, “In comparison with other parts of the country, especially south India, the awareness for education loan is much less in this part of the country and our basic aim is to increase that awareness.”

The bank plans to add two more branches in the city where it has 12 branches at present. It is also concentrating on reducing its non-performing assets (NPA) to 0.5 per cent by the end of 2005-06 compared with 1.61 per cent as on March 31 and 1.74 per cent as on June 30.

“We are putting great emphasis on corporate debt restructuring and have undertaken nine such major accounts totalling Rs 300 crore, which includes Haldia Petrochemicals Limited among others,” he mentioned.

“We have raised tier II capital (debt capital) of Rs 250 crore during the last fiscal. However, we have no plans yet to raise any further capital,” said Bhattacharyya.

The bank has introduced core banking in 183 of its 829 branches across the country. All remaining technically feasible branches will be migrated on core banking solution by October 15. It has the largest market share amongst all commercial banks in Rajasthan, where it has 679 branches.