86
small borrowal accounts with credit limits of
`
25,000 and less. On the other
hand, borrowal accounts with higher credit limits of above
`
25,000 had shown
a relatively sizeable increase of 11.8 million as compared with only 2.1 million
increase in them during the preceding decade (December 1983 to March 1992).
Even in the next period between March 2001 and March 2005, while
there has occurred an addition of 24.79 million in total loan accounts, small
borrowal accounts had experienced an absolute fall of 0.49 million until March
2004. The year 2004-05 was the first year of farm credit doubling, when there
was an increase of 1.97 million accounts of small loans but thereafter the small
loan accounts generally followed a zig-zag pattern of declines and increases in
successive years (Table 4.17).
Besides, a more revealing aspect relates to the unusually sharp decline
in the share of small borrowers in the total bank credit outstanding (see Table
4.17). The decline has been persistent and that its, even in years when there has
occurred some increase in the number of small borrowal accounts. This share
in amount has reached such a puny level as 1.2% of the aggregate, it was about
25% at the end of the 1980s. This low figure in the share of small borrowal
accounts corresponds to the loss in momentum of loans to agriculturists.
It is necessary to clarify at this stage that we have consciously avoided
applying deflators for the small borrowal size of
`
25,000 because this size itself
is quite substantial for a vast number of informal sector borrowers, farmers in
Table 4.17: Trends in the Number of Small Borrowal vis-à-vis
other Bank Loan Accounts
Period-End Total Bank Borrowal
Accounts (In Lakh)
Small Borrowal Accounts of
`
,25,000 or less (In Lakh)
Other Bigger Accounts
(In Lakh)
Number Increase over
the previous
period
Number Increase over the
previous period
Number Increase over
the previous
period
Dec-1983
277.48
-
265.21
-
12.27
-
March 1992
658.61
381.12 625.48
360.27
33.12
20.85
March 2001
523.65
(-) 134.95 372.52
(-) 252.96 151.13
118.01
March 2004
663.90
140.25 367.66
(-) 4.86 296.24
145.11
March 2005
771.51
107.61 387.33
19.67 384.18
87.94
March 2006
854.35
82.84 384.19
(-) 3.14 470.16
85.98
March 2007
944.42
90.07 386.12
1.93 558.30
88.14
March 2008 1069.90
125.48 382.98
(-) 3.14 686.92
128.62
March 2009 1100.56
30.66 392.07
9.09 708.49
21.57
March 2010 1186.48
85.93 451.80
59.73 734.68
26.19
March 2011 1207.24
20.76 433.22
(-)18.58 774.02
39.32
Source:
RBI's, Basic Statistical Returns of Scheduled Commercial Banks, various issues.
