Banks NPAs do not indicate systemic vulnerability: FinMin

The Finance Ministry today said non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking sector do not indicate any systemic vulnerability.

"Overall trends in NPAs presently do not indicate any systemic vulnerability," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The gross NPA of commercial banks have increased to 2.8% of the total credit at the end of September 2011, from 2.3% in March.

"Banks are closely watching the NPA position and the same is also monitored regularly by RBI. Various measures taken with regard to NPA recovery are presently considered to be sufficient," Meena added.

He said although the NPA of the banking sector increased in value terms, as a percentage of total credit it is "not considered high from systemic perspective".

In reply to a another question in the Rajya Sabha, Meena said the government has announced an additional borrowing of Rs 92,872 crore for the current fiscal. This is over and above the estimated gross borrowings of Rs 4.17 lakh crore announced the Budget for 2011-12.

"This additional borrowing was due to estimated increase in fiscal deficit and shortfall in other items of financing the fiscal deficit... The additional borrowing was also necessitated due to cash shortfall in the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF).

The government had budgeted the fiscal deficit at 4.6% of GDP for the current fiscal.