Our Reporter
Dimapur, Oct. 21 (EMN): Nagaland State Cooperative Bank (NStCB) has earned a gross profit of INR 9895.49 lakh including INR 6831.36 lakh from interest on loan and advances and INR 2819.93 lakh from investment and other income amounting to INR 244.20 lakh under developmental initiatives of the bank during the financial year 2021-2022.
This was disclosed during the 53rd annual report presented by Sentiyanger Imchen, additional chief secretary and finance commissioner and chairman of NStCB, at the annual general meeting on Friday at NStCB conference hall, Dimapur.
Imchem stated that the bank incurred an expenditure of INR 9120.63 lakh during the financial year 2021-2022, netting a profit of INR 774.86 lakhs as on March 31, 2022.
It was updated that the borrowings of the bank increased from INR 7,882.28 lakh as on March 31, 2021, to INR 8,676.78 lakh as on March 2022 constituting 7.13% of the total working fund. Borrowings from NABARD constituted 100% of the total outstanding.
The average cost of borrowing was 5.38% as on March 31, 2022 as compared to 6.40% as on March 31, 2021, and the bank has not defaulted in repayment of its dues during the period under report, he stated.
As per the consolidated Demand Collection and Balance (DCB) statement, the position of recovery of loans and advances has further deteriorated from 58.19% to 57.84% during the year ended March 31, 2022, and as such, there was increase in NPA figure to the extent of INR 1,191.69 lakh after netting off recovery of INR 1,328 lakh from NPAs of previous year, it stated.
The general manager of NABARD, Tiakala, stated that there are certain areas that need to be given immediate attention to strengthen the working of the bank. She has suggested on the need for a robust internal checks and control system to minimise risks, protect assets to ensure accuracy of records in order to avoid any financial or reputational loss to the bank.
She also stressed on various subjects such as strengthening the grassroots societies, need for diversification of its loan portfolio, building the capacities of the Human resources of the bank, and also to explore the possibility of launching deposit mobilisation scheme through its affiliated societies.
She also stated that there is a need for expansion of its branch network citing that for more than 10 years, there has been no expansion of branch network. Further, it was observed that 54.73% of outstanding loans and advances were shared by the top 3 branches of the bank, which shows the lack of involvement of remaining branches for meeting the credit needs of the potential customer, she said.
She asserted that in order to diversify its loan portfolio, the bank needs to widen the scope of its banking products. In this regard, we are confident that with the sanction of a Business Diversification and Product Innovation Cell (BDPIC) in the bank with total grant support of INR 82.50 lakh from NABARD, the bank will be able to create loan products that will have a higher demand in the market and help increase the bank’s business, she added.
During the programme, short speeches were also delivered by Sehjang Doungel, Commissioner and Secretary (Cooperation) Nagaland, Temjen Longkumer RCS, Nagaland and Vice Chairman of NStCB Kekhwengulo Lea.