WEST BENGAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION

 

Publication under section 4[1] [b] of the Right to Information Act, 2005

 

 

[i]      West Bengal Financial Corporation [WBFC] is a state level developmental financial institution set up under the State Financial Corporations Act, 1951 [SFCs Act] for providing term loans to micro, small and medium enterprises for setting up industrial and service sector units in the state of West Bengal.  

 

Having its head office in the 3rd and the 4th floors of 12A NS Road, Kolkata 700 001, WBFC [PBX numbers: (033) 2230 3083, 2230 0055, 2230 4954 and 2242 0313] has got 14 district offices all over the State with one regional office at Siliguri and the other at Durgapur. WBFC may, ordinarily, sanction loan up to a limit of Rs. 5 crore per project.

 

[ii]      The broad powers for sanctioning of loans are as under:

 

Designation

Sanctioning power in Rs. lakh

Deputy Manager

2.00

Manager

4.00

Chief Manager

6.00

Deputy General Manager

7.00

General Manager

10.00

Managing Director

75.00

Executive Committee

300.00

Board

Above 300.00

         

The general superintendence, direction and management of affairs and business of WBFC are vested upon a Board of Directors [BOD] constituted in terms of section 9 of the SFCs Act. There is an Executive Committee constituted by the BOD in terms of section 18 of the SFCs Act and other committees constituted under section 21 of the SFCs Act, for discharging the functions as have been prescribed / delegated by the BOD for the purpose of assisting it in the efficient discharge of its functions.

 

The Managing Director, appointed by the State Government, is a whole-time officer of WBFC and performs such duties as the BOD, by regulations, entrusts or delegates to him.

 

The loan proposals are processed by the members of the staff of the Operations & Accounts Department, headed by a General Manager. The General Manager [Administration, Audit & Branch coordination] looks after the departments mentioned. The Monitoring Department, headed also by a General Manager, looks after the release of loan funds and the related issues and the members of the staff of the Recovery Department, also headed by a General Manager, are entrusted to look after the recovery related matters. The Secretary looks after the corporate affairs and is also the State Public Information Officer of this public authority.

 

[iii]     Any proposal after being processed by the front-office officials of the department concerned is placed before his/her superior for consideration and approval who, in turn, either approves/declines the same, should it be within his/her powers, or sends it with his/her views to his/her superior. The final disposal comes either from the Managing Director / Executive Committee / BOD depending on their respective authority.

 

[iv]     WBFC, apart from being principally governed by the provisos of the SFCs Act, follows various norms/statutes/guidelines set from time to time by the Small Industries Development Bank of India [SIDBI], the State Government, the RBI, the Industrial Development Bank of India [IDBI] and other government agencies - both in the State as also at the Centre.

 

[v]                Principally governed by the provisos of the SFCs Act, and guided by the directives emanating from SIDBI, the State Government, RBI, IDBI and other government agencies, WBFC issues Office Orders / Office Circulars containing rules, regulations, instructions, manuals etc., from time to time, for use by its employees in discharging their functions and duties. There is a lending policy containing the broad criteria for sanctioning the loan proposals, OTS guidelines for considering compromise settlement proposals from the borrowers, WBFC General Regulations, 2003 to deal with the corporate and other related affairs of the Corporation and WBFC [Staff] Regulations to deal with the staff matters.

 

[vi] MOUs entered upon by WBFC with different organizations are held by the Corporation.

 

[vii]    There is no such arrangement as of now for consultation with or representation by the members of the public in relation to the formulation of the policies or implementation thereof of the Corporation, save and except representation of shareholders in the BOD in terms of section 4[3][d] of SFCs Act.

 

[viii]   The Corporation has a BOD, an Executive Committee and a Default Review Committee and the meetings of these bodies are not open to the public nor are the minutes distributed to the general public.

 

[ix]     A directory of the officers and the employees of the Corporation is available in this site containing their basic salary per month as on 31 January 2007.

 

[x]      Please refer to serial number ix above.

[xi]     The Corporation has not yet appointed any agency.

 

[xii]    The Corporation does not have any subsidy programme of its own but releases, if directed by the governments, government subsidies through it to the eligible beneficiaries.

 

[xiii]   No such activity of granting concessions, permits etc. are carried out by WBFC.

 

[xiv]   Almost all the key information, statistics, accounts, management information system etc. involving the operations of WBFC are available in electronic form. In addition, it has the website www.wbfconline.org  accessible to the general public.

 

[xv]    The information under the RTI Act, 2005 are available to the general public through the State Public Information Officer of WBFC, Sri Probal Dasgupta, located at the head office of the Corporation. The Corporation has got no library or reading room as yet.

 

[xvi]   Sri Probal Dasgupta, has been designated as the State Public Information Officer of WBFC under the RTI Act, 2005 having his office in the 4th floor of 12A NS Road, Kolkata 700 001 and may be contacted [(033) 2230 3749], during the usual office hours, preferably with prior appointment.