SBI's farm loan NPAs up 4-fold in Apr-Sept

State Bank of India's non-performing assets (NPAs) in the farm loans segment rose nearly fourfold to Rs 13,545 crore in the first six months of this fiscal, the Parliament was informed today.

During the April-September period of 2010-11, NPAs in the agriculture segment were Rs 3,718 crore, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He further said SBI's overall NPAs increased to Rs 33,946 crore as on September 30, 2011, from Rs 23,205 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Meena added that SBI has taken a number of steps to cope with this situation, including attention to restructuring/ reschedulement of eligible accounts, which are technically viable and economically feasible, and setting up account tracking centres to focus on prevention of probable NPAs slipping into NPAs.

Also, he said, "All recovery measures, already in vogue, are being seriously reviewed and followed up. Credit-cum- recovery camps are being organised. Involving business correspondents, business facilitators and self-help group in recovery of agricultural NPAs. Performance of enforcement agent is being followed up for quick recovery of overdues."

To another query, Meena said that 21 defaulters, having outstanding amount of Rs 100 crore and above, owed public sector banks Rs 3,661.04 crore as on March 31, 2011.