Priority Sector Lending

Priority Sector Lending (PSL)

• The RBI mandates banks to lend a certain portion of their funds to specified sectors, 
• Priority Sector means those sectors which the Government of India and Reserve Bank of India consider as important for the development of the basic needs of the country and are to be given priority over other sectors. The banks are mandated to encourage the growth of such sectors with adequate and timely credit.

Categories of Priority Sector

1. Agriculture
2. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
3. Export credit
4. Education,
5. Housing
6. Social infrastructure
7. Renewable energy
8. others.

• All scheduled commercial banks and foreign banks (with a sizable presence in India) are mandated to set aside 40% of their Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANDC) for lending to these sectors.
• Regional rural banks, co-operative banks and small finance banks have to allocate 75% of ANDC to PSL.
• The idea behind this is to ensure that adequate institutional credit reaches some of the vulnerable sectors of the economy, which otherwise may not be attractive for banks from the profitability point of view.

Revised Priority Sector Lending Guidelines