Bank of India unlikely to meet its priority sector lending targets

Bank of India is unlikely to meet its priority sector lending targets, as result of the declassification of farm credit by the Reserve Bank of India back in July 2011. The bank's credit exposure to agriculture grew only by about 1.17% on a year on year basis. The bank had given loans to sugar cooperatives, which will not be a part of priority sector lending now. Going by the earlier norms, the bank’s exposure to agriculture is about 18-20%. Banks are mandated to lend about 20% of the total credit to the priority sectors like agriculture and small and medium enterprises