Advances of nationalized, co-op banks shrank in Goa, says Economic Survey

Borrowers in Goa opted increasingly for private sector banks and small finance firms instead of nationalized and cooperative banks in 2022-23, the state's Economic Survey report said.

The report was tabled in the Assembly earlier this week during the ongoing budget session. Overall bank loans during 2022-23 (up to September 2022) stood at Rs 30,769.92 crore against Rs 30,609.13 crore during the same period in 2021-22, it said.

But advances by public sector banks decreased by 1.90 percent while those by private sector banks increased by 7.80 percent. The advances by Cooperative Banks reduced by 3.21 percent and (those by) small finances increased by 84.52 percent, the report said.

Small Finance Banks were the only sector to have disbursed more loans than the deposits they collected, it further noted. It is also seen that in the Cooperative Sector, the disbursement of loans is poorest as compared to the other Sectors, the report added. There was a 30 percent increase in banking deposits between 2015-16 to 2022-23. The deposits in the banks during 2022-23 (up to September 2022) showed an increase of 8.72 percent compared to the same period previous year. There was a constant increase in the deposits of all banks during 2022-23.

The contribution of deposits in public sector banks was the highest at 70.14 percent followed by 24.05 percent in the private sector. Cooperative sector accounted for 5.58 percent and small finances a mere 0.23 percent of deposits. Goa has 47 banks, including 12 public sector, 17 private sector, 13 cooperative sector and five small finance banks with a total of 1,024 branches.