Why have SLBCs/UTLBCs been asked to report SC beneficiary data for key government jobs and business programs?

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The Finance Ministry has now directed the State and UT Level Banking Committees to compulsorily include data on the percentage of SC beneficiaries availing flagship central schemes like Mudra Yojana, Stand Up India, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, MSME/Entrepreneurial Loans and others. The direction comes after a nudge from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes flagged the fact that these banking committees were not reporting these data for a number of these government schemes in their regular inspections, hampering the Commission’s ability to fulfill its constitutional duties.

What are SLBC/UTLBC?

According to the Reserve Bank of India, State-level Bankers’ Committees are “the apex inter-institutional forum for facilitating the coordination of efforts of the State Government, banks, financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders for the development of the State”. In the Union Territories it is known as UTLBC (Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committees). These committees are usually chaired by the Convener Bank, which is notified by the RBI.

The committees consist of Heads of concerned State Ministries, Regional Director of RBI, State Directors of Commercial Banks with significant presence in the respective State, NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), Regional Rural Banks and State Cooperative Bank. In addition to these members, the RBI guidelines require the committees to invite representatives from institutions such as the National Commission for SCs and STs, the National Horticulture Board, farmers’ unions and other stakeholders. These committees are mandated to meet quarterly.

The primary focus of the SLBS is envisaged to be on “policy and strategic issues relating to priority sector credit flow and overall financial inclusion in the state”, as per the RBI guidelines governing the functioning of the committees.

What did the National Commission for Scheduled Castes notice in the recent SLBC/UTLBC meetings?

The National Commission for SCs has a constitutional mandate to participate and advise on matters related to planning for the socio-economic development of SC communities across the country. One of the ways in which the National Commission performs this function is by attending SLBC/UTLBC meetings along with conducting regular inspections of public institutions with which SC communities interact.

According to a letter sent by the Financial Services Department of the Union Finance Ministry, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes noted that one obstacle in performing its monitoring function in the SLBC and UTLBC was the absence of data on the share of SC beneficiaries for several Union government schemes that are supposed to provide subsidized business loans, create jobs and formalize street vending in the country, among others.

NCSC Secretary Vivek K. Dewangan, in his letter to DFS dated September 24, said that the SLBC call banks did not reflect these figures, based on the observations of the Commission’s state representatives who attended the meetings of these banking committees across states and UTs. The NCSC requested the DFS to issue the necessary guidance for the committees to report this data on a mandatory basis and for this data to be forwarded to the Commission.

Schemes flagged by the NCSC for specific program and bank data on SC beneficiaries included Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Stand-Up India Business Loan Scheme, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, PM SVANidhi (PM Street Vendors’ Atma Nirbhar Nidhi), Trust Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Business Loans and MSME, among others.

Why does NCSC need SC beneficiary data for these schemes?

Government officials explained that the main function of the Commission at the SLBC and UTLBC review meetings is to assess the level of financial inclusion of SC families. This requires them to collect data on the number and proportion of SC beneficiaries across schemes and banks, they said. “The purpose is to determine whether the proportion of SC beneficiaries for each scheme roughly matches the proportion of these communities in the respective population of states or UTs,” said one official, elaborating further: “For example, if a state has roughly 10% SC population, we would expect the proportion of SC beneficiaries in the schemes to be as close to that as is practically possible.”

What has the SLBC/UTLBC been told to address this issue?

In response to the issue flagged by the NCSC, the Ministry of Financial Services wrote an advisory to all SLBCs/UTLBCs on October 5 asking them to ensure that data on the number and proportion of SC beneficiaries – both scheme-wise and bank-wise – is included in the audit reports. DFS noted that this data should also be shared regularly with the NCSC, further giving committees until October 9 to raise any issue they may have with the availability of this data on SC beneficiaries.

Published – 8 Oct 2026 10:35 AM IST