Bad loans worth Rs 10 trillion written off in last 5 years by banks: Govt

These bad loans have been written off by scheduled commercial banks in last five fiscals (2017-22), the govt told parliament

Bad loans worth Rs 10,09,511 crore have been written off by scheduled commercial banks in the last five fiscals (2017-22), the Parliament was told on Monday.

The nation's largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI) tops the list of top 10 banks with the highest amount of bad loans written off in 2021-22 alone, as per data provided by the Reserve Bank of India, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad told Congress member Deepak Baij in an oral response during Question Hour in Lok Sabha.

The SBI has written off bad loans worth Rs 19,666 crore in 2021-22, followed by Union Bank of India which has written off bad loans worth Rs 19,484 crore, Punjab National Bank (Rs 18,312 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 17,967 crore), Bank of India (Rs 10,443 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 10,148 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 9,405 crore), Axis Bank (Rs 9,126 crore), Indian Bank (Rs 8,347 crore), and Canara Bank (Rs 8,210 crore), he said.

When Baij sought to know why names of entities or persons whose loans have been written off, are not revealed, the minister informed that it is not done as per the RBI's norms.

However if, action is taken against them under various provisions of Securitisation Act or the NCLT, then their properties are auctioned and names of such entities are declared, Karad said.

At the same time, the minister further informed that as per the RBI data, public sector banks have recovered an aggregate amount of Rs 4,80,111 crore, including recovery of Rs 1,03,045 crore from written-off loans during the last five financial years.

--IANS

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