While many SMEs often grudge about the fact that they do not receive adequate financial support from banks, small entrepreneurs in West Bengal (WB) are unlikely to have such complains in the coming days. In a special meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee on August 2, 2010, WB bankers have agreed to most of the proposals forwarded by the state government, whereby credit access for the small-scale industries in WB is set to ease.

The meeting was attended by WB finance minister Dr Asim Dasgupta, WB government officials of various departments, officials of the Reserve Bank of India, public sector banks and cooperative banks, among others. Speaking to the media, Dr Dasgupta said that the meeting has been successful as bankers have agreed to provide credit to small entrepreneurs in agricultural and SME sectors as well as to self-help groups. Besides, they are also willing to set up branches in 924 village panchayats across the state that still do not have any banking service in place.

SMEs upbeat

The bankers’ promise has brought huge cheer to agricultural and SME sectors in WB. “Credit is an issue not only for us, but for small players across the country. Those of us associated with the food and agriculture sectors realise this even more, because fund flow into this sector is required from the root level. If farmers do not have funds, cultivation will suffer, which subsequently will affect production, distribution as well as supply and exports. Therefore, as financial health of small exporters like us depends a lot on these factors, it would be extremely beneficial if banks extend loans to small players in the agricultural sector,” said Govind Ghosh, proprietor of Radha Export International, a small-sized basmati rice exporting company in Kolkata.

Incidentally, this development comes in wake of WB chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s comment last month when he said that the state received only about one-third of the required agricultural credit in 2009-10.

Prasenjit Das