Suggesting the banks to invest in long-term assets to improve the capital formation in agriculture sector, Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said that the agriculture credit flow target of Rs 11 lakh crore for 2018-19 is achievable by the banking sector, if they step up agriculture loans.
Jaitley noted that this target would also support the government’s intention to double farmer incomes by 2022 and also reviewed the funds announced in the earlier Union Budgets and expressed need of collaboration of all stakeholders to improve the farmers’ income. He highlighted that investments in financial technology over the past few years have made the rural financial ecosystem efficient, speedy and transparent.
Besides, Department of Financial Services Secretary Rajeev Kumar also stressed on the need of financial inclusion and adoption of technologies to make use of the opportunities arising out of higher GDP growth. He further asked the banking system to concentrate on geographical areas like North East, East, and Central India, where the formal credit can give a fillip to the growth potential these areas offer.