'Top 30 NPAs of PSBs account for one-third of total bad loans'

Gross non-performing assets amount of top 30 accounts of public sector banks stood at Rs 72,174 crore

The top 30 loan defaulters of public sector banks (PSBs) account for a little more than a third of total gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of state-run lenders, Finance Minister P Chidambaram informed Parliament on Tuesday.

"The ratio of the top 30 bad loans as a percentage of gross NPAs, in respect of PSBs, as on September, is 35.5 per cent, and for all banks, it is 38.8 per cent," he said. The gross NPAs amount of the top 30 accounts of PSBs stood at Rs 72,174 crore, while for all banks it was Rs 91,667 crore as on September. In the case of nationalised banks, the top 30 defaulters contributed 43.8 per cent to gross NPA, with Rs 55,663 crore.

The gross NPAs of the State Bank of India (SBI) group, comprising SBI and its five associates, were worth Rs 71,620 crore at the end of the first quarter in the current financial year. Top 30 loan defaulters of SBI group had a loan outstanding of Rs 16,511 crore or 21.7 per cent of the total loan.

To improve the health of the financial sector and to improve asset quality of banks, besides preventing slippages, the Reserve Bank of India from time to time issues instructions to the banks. According to the norms, he said, each bank was required to have a robust mechanism for early detection of signs of distressed including prompt restructuring in the case of all viable accounts; to have a loan recovery policy which sets down the manner of recovery dues, targeted level of reduction and monitoring of write-off.

In a separate response, Minister of State for Finance, Namo Narain Meena said the government had advised PSBs to take a number of new initiatives to increases the pace of recovery and manage NPAs, which include appointment of nodal officers for recovery, to conduct special drives for recovery of assets on loss and to constitute a board level committee for monitoring of recovery.