Banks put properties worth over Rs 20k cr on the block to recover dues

NPAsource.com has registered 21,470 properties across Indian cities

To recover dues, banks have put properties worth Rs 20,000 crore on the block in the past 18 months. The properties include residential apartments, commercial offices, industrial lands and factories.

NPAsource.com, a portal dedicated to the resolution of non-performing assets of banks and financial institutions, has registered 21,470 properties across Indian cities. As of February-end, the value of these properties was estimated at Rs 20,333 crore.

“These properties were mostly mortgaged by small businessmen, traders and individuals against bank loans,” said D K Jain, chairman and managing director of Atishya Group, told Business Standard. Atishya Group owns NPAsource.com.

According to data available with the portal, the highest number of properties was registered from Andhra Pradesh, followed by West Bengal and Maharashtra.

Jain said banks had already started recovering money by selling these properties. It is estimated in the past year and a half, lenders sold 2,347 properties for Rs 2,105 crore.

“Not all transactions happened through our portal. In cases where banks were finding it difficult to find a buyer and approached us for assistance, we helped them with the auctioning process,” Jain said.

Bankers said selling mortgaged properties was one of the ways through which lenders recovered loans and improved credit quality. To name and shame wilful defaulters, many banks, including State Bank of India, have decided to publish their photographs and details in newspapers.

Lenders said legal notices were being sent to borrowers who were deliberately not repaying loans, despite a high net worth.

“The government has made it clear we should step up our recovery efforts. Banks are working out ways to recover dues. We are sensitive to cases where the borrowers have defaulted because of external contingencies and are working with them to resolve the issues. But if we find a borrower is deliberately not repaying the money, we are taking action, including auctioning of his mortgaged property,” said a senior banker with a Kolkata-based public sector bank, on condition of anonymity.

State	Total Properties	Value (in Rs crore)
Andhra Pradesh	2,978	2,123
West Bengal	2,590	1,336
Maharashtra	2,221	2,546
Uttar Pradesh	1,947	1,555
Tamil Nadu	1,943	2,809
All India	21,470	20,333

^{Source: NPAsource.com}