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          The revised guidelines on the maintenance of the general provision against consumer credit will now be effective from January 01 next instead of December 31 next.
The central bank in the revised guideline issued earlier had asked the banks to maintain a 5.0 per cent general provision against unclassified consumer credit.
"We have deferred the implementation of the revised guideline by a day with a view to helping the banks," a BB senior official told the FE.
The central bank earlier issued a circular in this connection and directed the chief executives of all scheduled banks to follow the revised guidelines on consumer loans.
"The issue has been reviewed further and now it has been decided that the maintenance of five per cent general provision against unclassified consumer loan will be effective from January 01, 2006 instead of December 31, 2005," the central bank said in its latest circular.
Earlier, the BB raised the rate of general provisioning to five per cent from two per cent for consumer financing in line with its tight monetary policy.
The flow of consumer financing is likely to decline in the near future because of increase in the provisioning requirement by the central bank.
"We will discourage the consumer loans to avoid higher provisioning ratio," a senior official of a private commercial bank told the FE Saturday, adding that the banks get three months time to implement such provision because of the shifting of the date by one day.
The bankers voiced concern over the central bank's decision to raise the level of general provisioning requirement against consumer financing at a bankers' meeting, held at the BB December 08 last.
They also urged the BB governor to review the matter further to protect the interest of the banks.
The lending rates on consumer financing are likely to increase further mainly due to hike in the ratio of general provisioning requirement, sources in the banking sector said.
However, the banks are now offering their lending rates on consumer credit in the range between 11 per cent and 18 per cent while export credit is fixed at seven per cent, sources in the central bank said.