Finance Ministry Orders State, UT Bankers’ Committees to Report SC Beneficiary Share

The Union Finance Ministry has directed State-level and Union Territory-level Bankers’ Committees to mandatorily report the percentage share of Scheduled Caste beneficiaries using several flagship Central government schemes.

The data will have to be included in the committees’ regular reviews and shared with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.

Data to be reported scheme-wise and bank-wise

In a letter dated October 5, the Department of Financial Services of the Union Finance Ministry asked all State Level Bankers’ Committees and Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committees to include the percentage of SC beneficiaries in the schemes flagged by the Commission.

The information has been sought both scheme-wise and bank-wise in the committees’ periodic reviews.

The schemes include the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Stand-Up India, the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, PM SVANidhi, the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises, and MSME business loans.

The Finance Ministry’s direction also covers Mudra Yojana, Stand Up India, the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, MSME or business loans and other schemes.

The advisory asks the bankers’ committees to ensure that the information is shared regularly with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.

NCSC had flagged missing information

The direction followed the Commission’s concern that bankers’ committees were not reporting beneficiary data for several government schemes during their regular reviews.

The absence of this information was hindering the Commission’s ability to perform its Constitutional duties.

About a week before the Finance Ministry’s advisory, the NCSC wrote to Sanjay Lohia, the Secretary of the Department of Financial Services, highlighting the issue.

The Commission said that, during review meetings of the bankers’ committees, the conveners of the State Level Bankers’ Committees did not reflect the percentage of SC beneficiaries for several schemes intended to support the financial inclusion of citizens.

The NCSC also noted that representatives from its State Offices had been regularly attending the bankers’ committee review meetings.

Their participation was intended to help monitor the financial inclusion of SC families, in line with the Commission’s Constitutional mandate.

Commission seeks to assess banks’ performance

The NCSC said the absence of beneficiary data made it difficult to assess whether banks were extending the required assistance to SC families.

“It becomes very difficult for the Commission to review the performance of Banks, i.e. whether they have been extending help to the SC families as per the Constitutional mandate or not.”

Sources aware of the developments told The Hindu that, while reviewing the performance of banks, the Commission routinely checks whether the share of SC beneficiaries in the government schemes is as close as possible to the share of their communities in the population.

The Commission’s ability to carry out this comparison had been affected because the bankers’ committees repeatedly said that they did not have disaggregated data.

“This has not been possible for the Commission in recent times because the bankers’ committees keep saying they do not have disaggregated data. This is why the Commission wrote to the DFS,” one government official said.

Action-taken reports sought

The Department of Financial Services has asked all State Level Bankers’ Committees and Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committees to submit an action-taken report on the advisory by October 9.

The committees have also been asked to flag by that time any issues related to the availability of the required data.

The government has further told the bankers’ committees to be prepared for an update on the action taken in a month’s time.

The reporting requirement is intended to place the beneficiary share for the specified schemes within the regular review process and give the Commission access to information it said was previously unavailable.

Source: The Hindu