UT Level State Bankers Committees Asked to Report Share of SC Beneficiaries in Jobs, Loan Subsidy Schemes

The Finance Ministry has now directed State and Union Territory level banking committees to mandatorily include data on the percentage of scheduled caste 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 the National Commission for Scheduled Castes pointed out that these bankers’ committees were not reporting these data for a number of government schemes in their regular audits, hampering the Commission’s ability to fulfill its constitutional duties.

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In a letter dated October 5, the Union Finance Ministry’s Department of Financial Services has written to all State Level Bankers’ Boards (SLBCs) and Union Territory Level Bankers’ Boards (UTLBCs) and asked them to include the percentage of SC beneficiaries for all NCSC-designated schemes in their regular checks – both scheme-wise and bank-wise. Counsel also asked the bankers’ committees to ensure regular sharing of this information with the Commission.

About a week ago, the NCSC wrote to Sanjay Lohia, Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), in which it pointed out that in the review meetings of the SLBC Conveners’ Bankers’ Committees, they were not reflecting the percentage of SC beneficiaries for several schemes to ensure financial inclusion of citizens.

In this letter, NCSC noted that such data is missing for Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Stand-Up India, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, PM SVANidhi (Street Vendor Scheme), Micro and Small Enterprises Guarantee Fund Trust and MSME Business Loans.

The Commission noted that representatives of its State Office regularly attend the banking committee review meetings to monitor the financial inclusion of SC families in line with its constitutional mandate. In view of the absence of data on SC beneficiaries, the NCSC said, “It is very difficult for the Commission to review the performance of the banks, i.e. whether they have extended assistance to SC families in accordance with the constitutional mandate or not.”

Sources familiar with the development told The Hindu that while reviewing the performance of banks, the Commission normally checks whether the share of SC beneficiaries in these government schemes is as close as possible to the share of their communities in the population. “This has not been possible for the Commission recently as the banking committees keep saying they don’t have the disaggregated data. That’s why the Commission has written to the DFS,” said one government official.

The DFS has now asked all SLBCs and UTLBCs to submit a report on the action taken on the recommendations issued to them by October 9, saying that any issues related to data availability should be flagged by then. The government further asked the banking committees to be ready to update the measures taken in a month.

Published – 07 Oct 2026 20:28 IST