PATNA, June 24 -- Bihar's deputy chief minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav on Tuesday cautioned banks against parking deposits without adequately extending credit in Bihar. He warned that lenders failing to improve key indicators such as the credit-to-deposit (CD) ratio and annual credit plan (ACP) achievement could face restrictions on accepting fresh government deposits if their performance does not improve within six months, officials said. Addressing a State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) meeting at a hotel in Patna on Tuesday, Yadav said Bihar's economic growth depended on banks ensuring greater credit flow to farmers, entrepreneurs, women, self-help groups and young people. He particularly called upon major lenders such as State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB), which together account for more than 43% of the state's bank deposits, to substantially improve their CD ratio and lending performance. "Until SBI and PNB improve their CD ratio, the state's overall banking performance will not reach the desired level. Increase credit flow and set an example for other banks," Yadav said. The warning comes as the Bihar government has overhauled its performance measurement index (PMI), the framework used to rank banks operating in the state, to place greater emphasis on credit deployment and lending to priority sectors. Under the revised index, communicated by expenditure secretary Rachna Patil to bank heads on Monday, lenders will be evaluated primarily on CD ratio (25%), incremental improvement in CD ratio (25%), achievement of annual credit plan targets (25%) and incremental ACP performance. Additional weightage has been assigned to Kisan Credit Card (KCC) performance (10%), lending to animal husbandry and fisheries (5%), and implementation of Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) and Prime Minister's Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) schemes (5% each). Officials said that the previous ranking system often produced distortions, with some banks recording strong lending performance but receiving poor rankings because of target-setting anomalies. The revised framework seeks to correct those shortcomings by linking rankings more closely to actual credit deployment and incremental lending, said a senior officer. "The ranking now mainly focuses on achievement in CD ratio, incremental performance in CD ratio, achievement in annual credit plan and incremental performance in ACP improvement," the officer added. Officials said that the changes were approved by the government's high-level committee (HLC) headed by development commissioner Mihir Kumar Singh and later endorsed by deputy CM Yadav, who is also the finance minister. Bihar's finance secretary, regional director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and chief general managers of NABARD and the State Bank of India (SBI) were also part of the HLC. The revision follows concerns over weak agricultural lending and poor progress in financial inclusion schemes. During a review in May, the committee found that only 115,000 new KCC accounts had been opened against an annual target of 743,000 during 2025-26 up to December, achieving just 15.47% of the target. Similarly, only 1.324 million farmers had been covered under the KCC scheme against a cumulative target of 2.672 million, translating into an achievement rate of 49.53%....