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On the basis of the recommendations made in September 2005 by the Internal Working Group, set up in Reserve Bank to examine, review and recommend changes, if any, in the existing policy on priority sector lending including the segments constituting the priority sector, targets and sub-targets, etc. and the comments/suggestions received thereon from banks, financial institutions, public and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), RBI has decided to include only those sectors as part of the priority sector, which impact large segments of population & the weaker sections, and which are employment-intensive.
Revised Categories of Priority Sector for Commercial Banks- January 2007
Accordingly the broad categories of priority sector for all scheduled commercial banks as per Draft Guidelines of RBI (January 2007) on Lending to Priority Sector are as under:
I. CATEGORIES OF PRIORITY SECTOR
(i) Agriculture (Direct and Indirect finance): Direct finance to agriculture shall include short, medium and long term loans given for agriculture and allied activities directly to individual farmers, Self-Help Groups (SHGs) or Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) of individual farmers without limit and to others (such as corporates, partnership firms and institutions) up to Rs. 20 lakh, for taking up agriculture/allied activities.
Indirect finance to agriculture shall include loans given for agriculture and allied activities as specified in Section I, appended.
(ii) Small Enterprises (Direct and Indirect Finance): Direct finance to small enterprises shall include all loans given to small (manufacturing) enterprises engaged in manufacture/ production, processing or preservation of goods, and small (service) enterprises engaged in providing or rendering of services, and whose investment in plant and machinery and equipment (original cost excluding land and building and such items as mentioned therein) respectively, does not exceed the amounts specified in Section I, appended.
Indirect finance to small enterprises shall include finance to any person providing inputs to or marketing the output of artisans, village and cottage industries, handlooms and to cooperatives of producers in this sector.
(iii) Other Small Business / Service Enterprises: Other Small Business / Service Enterprises shall include small business, retail trade, professional & self-employed persons, small road & water transport operators and all other service enterprises, as per the definition given in Section I appended.
(iv) Micro Credit: Provision of credit and other financial services and products of very small amounts not exceeding Rs. 50,000 per borrower to the poor, either directly or indirectly through a SHG/JLG mechanism or any intermediary (including NBFC/NGO/MFI), or to an NBFC/NGO engaged in provision of credit to the poor up to Rs. 50,000 per borrower will constitute micro credit. The poor for this purpose, shall include persons below the poverty line in the respective areas.
(v) Education loans: Education loans include loans and advances granted to only individuals for educational purposes up to Rs. 10 lakh for studies in India and Rs. 20 lakh for studies abroad, and do not include those granted to institutions;
(vi) Housing loans: Loans up to Rs. 15 lakh per family, for construction of houses by individuals, (excluding loans granted by banks to their own employees) and loans given for repairs to the damaged houses of individuals up to Rs. 1 lakh in rural and semi-urban areas and up to Rs. 2 lakh in urban areas.
(2) Investments by banks in securitised assets, representing loans to agriculture (direct or indirect), small enterprises (direct or indirect) and housing, shall be eligible for classification under respective categories of priority sector (direct or indirect) depending on the underlying assets, provided the securitised assets are originated by banks and financial institutions and fulfil the Reserve Bank of India guidelines on securitisation. This would mean that the banks' investments in the above categories of securitised assets shall be eligible for classification under the respective categories of priority sector only if the securitised advances were eligible to be classified as priority sector advances before their securitisation.
(3) Outright purchases of any loan asset eligible to be categorised under priority sector, shall be eligible for classification under the respective categories of priority sector (direct or indirect).
(4) The targets and sub-targets under priority sector lending would be linked to Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) (Net Bank Credit plus investments made by banks in non-SLR bonds held in HTM category) or Credit Equivalent amount of Off-Balance Sheet Exposures (as defined by Department of Banking Operations and Development of Reserve Bank of India from time to time), whichever is higher, as on March 31 of the previous year. Investments made by banks in the Recapitalization Bonds floated by Government of India will not be taken into account for the purpose.
(5) In order to encourage banks to increasingly lend directly to the priority sector borrowers, the banks' deposits placed with NABARD/SIDBI on account of non-achievement of priority sector lending targets would not be eligible for classification as indirect finance to agriculture/SSI, as the case may be.
Existing Guidelines for Priority Sector Lending by Banks ..... Click Here
Infrastructure lending and the list of items included under infrastructure sector ..... Click Here
Existing Categories of Priority Sector..... Click Here
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