Mumbai, Aug. 26 (PTI): Two weeks after reducing the interest rate on housing loans, the State Bank of India (SBI) has slashed the rate charged on loans against fixed deposits receipts (FDRs) by 100 to 125 basis points.

“As against charging a uniform rate of 2 per cent on all loans against FDRs, the revised interest is only 75 basis points over the interest rate of the fixed deposit for loans in excess of Rs 1 crore with immediate effect,” a top SBI official said here today.

In case of loans up to Rs 1 crore, the interest charged would be 100 basis points over the FD rate, he added.

On the personal finance segment, the official said loans have shown a growth of Rs 1,630 crore for the four months ended July 31 in the current fiscal as against a rise of Rs 231.57 crore in same period of fiscal 2001-02.

The total target in fiscal 2002-03 was Rs 7,000 crore compared with Rs 4,350 crore achieved in the previous fiscal, he said.

Majority of advances of SBI in the first four months were in housing loans at Rs 1,315 crore while other personal loans stood at Rs 315 crore, the official said adding, the latter segment grows faster in the second half of the fiscal. The average housing loans availed from the country’s largest bank were of Rs 2 lakh and cost of funds was around 7 per cent, he said.

The SBI official said Hyderabad (Rs 226 crore) topped the list followed by Mumbai (Rs 224 crore) in the circle-wise growth. The others are Delhi (Rs 123 crore), Chennai (Rs 117 crore), Lucknow (Rs 106 crore), Bhubaneswar (Rs 94 crore), north east (Rs 18 crore) and Gujarat (Rs 16 crore). SBI had slashed interest rates on housing loans by 50 basis points across all tenures effective August 16. The processing charge of 0.5 per cent on the loan amount has also been waived for a limited period.

The bank, which offered housing loans at fixed and floating rates, also cut the interest in July but left it unchanged for the 10-20 years tenure. The new floating rate for a loan of up to five years would be 9.5 per cent (10 per cent earlier). Loans of five to less than 10 years and 10-20 years would be charged an interest of 10 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively, he said.

The interest for housing loans taken on fixed rate for the reporting three tenures would be 9.75 per cent, 10.25 per cent and 10.75 per cent respectively. The official said a customer availing housing loan would be offered a SBI international credit card plus an add-on card minus the entry fee of Rs 750 for one year.