Western, southern states control over 60% of bank credit: RBI

Led by western and southern states of India, bank credit has seen a manifold jump in the past 25 years as total outstanding credit soared to Rs 68,78,500 crore from Rs 1,04,300 crore during the 1990-2015 period, says the latest state-wise credit data released by the RBI.

With Rs 41,70,600 crore of the total credit, the western and southern regions controlled as much as 60.6 per cent of the system as of financial year 2014-15, according to the second edition of the RBI's 'Handbook of Statistics on States 2016'.

Significantly, the southern states had higher credit outstanding in 1989-90 fiscal, with an outstanding of Rs 29,600 crore, while the western states had a lower Rs 29,000 crore then.

This spike is understandable, as the western states led by Maharashtra and Gujarat overtook Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Karnataka in the industrialisation sweepstakes after the liberation in July 1991.

The highest credit concentration was in the western region which had more than one-third of the total outstanding credit at Rs 23,39,900 crore as of end-March 2015, says the report.

This was followed by the southern states where the outstanding advances stood at Rs 18,30,700 crore, followed by the northern region with an outstanding loan of Rs 15,86,800 crore as of March 2015.

Outstanding loans to the central and the eastern regions stood at a low Rs 5,50,200 crore and Rs 5,17,300 crore and loans to the northeastern states was the lowest at Rs 53,600 crore.

In the western region, Maharashtra received the highest amount of loans to the tune of Rs 19,77,300 crore as of 201415 up from Rs 6,33,800 crore in 1989-90, the data showed.

Following the rapid industrialisation, which saw Maharashtra ceding the space to Gujarat, banks loan outstanding to the border state rose to Rs 3,47,100 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 76,400 crore in financial year 1989-90.

Outstanding loans to Punjab and Rajasthan were at Rs 1,96,600 crore and Rs 2,03,000 crore, respectively as of endMarch 2015.