Agartala, Jan. 21: The Tripura State Co-operative Bank (TSCB) has reported a five per cent decline in its credit-deposit (CD) ratio since November 8 2016, when demonetisation was proclaimed.

Before demonetisation, the bank's CD ratio was 57 per cent. It has come down to 52 per cent after two-and-a-half-months of demonetisation.

"Most creditors deposited old demonetised notes in their cash credit accounts and got rid of the loan burden. They have not applied for fresh loans till now. Hence the decline in CD ratio," TSCB chairman and a councillor of Agartala Municipal Corporation, Haripada Chakraborty, told reporters here today on the occasion of the bank's diamond jubilee.

He said in the 2015-16 financial year, the bank had made a profit of Rs 109.43 crore out of a total annual turnover of Rs 3,475.69 crore. "Our loan recovery rate is also quite healthy at 74 per cent as calculated till the end of last financial year. At a time when most of the public sector undertakings continue to incur loss, the TSCB is making healthy progress in its banking business," he said.

"Our customer base is 9.5 lakh and besides advancing loans we also cater to other needs of the state government and people like disbursing salaries of a large section of employees. Moreover, in primary sector lending (advancing loans for agriculture and allied activities), the TSCB is leading in the state as more than half of our total advances - Rs 680 crore out of a total of Rs 1,184 crore - are to the agricultural and allied sector," Chakraborty said.

On the deposit of money post-demonetisation, Chakraborty said during the stipulated period after November 8, the TSCB had received deposits of Rs 134 crore and the entire amount had been sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for exchange.

On the diamond jubilee programme this year, managing director of the bank Swapan Saha said friendly football competition, drawing contest for children, essay competition on co-operative movement in the country and a seminar on how best to strengthen the co-operative movement would be held.

"These programmes will form part of the diamond jubilee celebration of our bank. Besides, we are also thinking of recruiting employees as we are short of staff and give them various benefits like full pension," Saha said. In the 2017-18 fiscal, the bank plans to provide facilities like ATMs and core-banking, covering as many branches as possible.