Banks' gross NPAs at Rs 8.41 trn in Dec 2017; SBI highest at Rs 2 trn

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of all the banks in the country amounted to Rs 8.40 trillion in December, led by industry loans followed by services and agriculture sectors, government said on Friday.

The gross NPAs or bad loans of scheduled commercial banks as on December 31, 2017 due to loans to industry were at Rs 6.09 trillion, accounting for 20.41 per cent of the gross advances.

That was followed by Rs 1.1 trillion (5.77 per cent) dues from services sector; Rs 696 billion (6.53 per cent) from agriculture and allied activities; Rs 149 billion from other non-food credit and Rs 366 billion (2.01 per cent) from retail loans, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The highest amount of gross NPAs was for country's largest lender SBI at Rs 2.01 trillion. Among others, Punjab National Bank (PNB) was at Rs 552 billion; IDBI Bank — Rs 445 billion; Bank of India — Rs 434 billion; Bank of Baroda — Rs 416 billion; Union Bank of India — Rs 380 billion; Canara Bank — Rs 377 billion and ICICI Bank — Rs 338 billion.

Indian Overseas Bank bank had gross NPAs of Rs 317 billion; Central Bank of India — Rs 324 billion; UCO Bank — Rs 243 billion; Allahabad Bank — Rs 231 billion; Andhra Bank — Rs 215 billion and Corporation Bank — Rs 218 billion.

Shukla said there are as many as 8,457 cases pending in the National Company Law Tribunal and 264 in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal as on December 31, 2017, through which banks seek to recover their dues.

In reply to a question on write off by banks, of which SBI has the highest amount, the minister said that the country's largest lender had written-off Rs 203 billion (including through compromise) in 2016-17.

"This is 24.9 per cent of the amount written off by all PSBs in 2016-17, which is marginally lower than SBI's share in the total business of PSBs (26.3 per cent)," he added.

SBI has apprised that it has two-fold strategy for controlling fresh slippages and resolution of existing NPAs.

Further, the government has recently announced PSBs reforms agenda for responsive and responsible banking, which encapsulates a synergistic approach for ensuring prudential and clean lending, better customer service, enhanced credit availability, focus on micro, small and medium enterprises and better governance, he said.

Also, Reserve Bank has issued a Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework to maintain the sound financial health of banks.

RBI has placed eleven PSBs — Dena Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank, Corporation Bank, Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and United Bank of India — under the PCA framework.