The money of depositors associated with Maharashtra-based Nashik District Central Cooperative Bank is safe and there is no need to worry, claimed its CEO Shailesh Pingale who is these days busy taking action against defaulters.
“With 12 lakh depositors connected to the bank, action against the borrowers is only in the interest of depositors said Pingale adding the bank has a deposit base of Rs 2200 crore,” he said.
In a bid to recover the long-pending dues, the bank has started taking strict action against the defaulters, and the majority of them are farmers. The bank is able to recover an amount of Rs 1 crore on a daily basis in its ongoing recovery bid”, added its MD.
Pingale said, “So far, we have seized 247 tractors from the farmers and got permission from the registrar to auction 113 tractors. In the first phase, the bank is auctioning the moveable items of defaulters. In the next phase, we will start taking action on those farmers who took crop, farm, pipeline loans, and others.”
The move against farmers touched off discussions in the corridors of the concerned Ministry.
“At present, the bank has accumulated a loss of Rs 698 crore and we are hoping that till next year we will be able to wipe out all the losses. We are working hard to lower the NPA level. As I took charge as the new CEO one year back., the gross and Net NPA was 75 and 62 percent but now the Gross and Net NPA is 56 and 42 percent”, Pingale said while recounting his achievements.
It bears recall that the bank has been at a loss since 2016 and has a network of 170 branches across Nashik district. The bank is also not getting re-finance from the MSC Bank in sufficient quantity for disbursing crop loans and others.