Over the last few years, scores of district central cooperative (DCC) banks in Maharashtra have refrained from claiming to recover bad debts amounting to Rs 278.54 crore. NABARD’s documents show that just a very few DCC banks have been able to keep their NPA limits below the mandated five per cent mark at least in the last two years, reports Indian Express.
DCC banks are the nodal agencies at the district levels and play a very key role in the rural economy. Disbursement of crop loans is a major function of these banks. Due to their penetration in the rural areas, they have a better record in this matter than other banks.
Most of the banks in Maharashtra are now controlled by the NCP and the Congress. Six of the banks — Ahmednagar, Akola, Bhandara, Kolhapur, Pune and Sangli DCCs — had their NPA below 10 per cent while the rest had much higher NPAs.
The cumulative gross NPAs reported by all the banks for the current financial year was Rs 6,765.79 crore. In 2013, the RBI had de-licensed the DCCs of Nagpur, Buldhana and Wardha for their miserable performance in terms of NPA.