Private banks' profit beats state-run banks in 2014-15: Minister

The total net profit of private sector banks taken together during fiscal 2014-15 fiscal was over Rs.1,000 crore more than the public sector banks (PSBs), parliament was told on Tuesday.

"Total net profit of private sector banks was Rs.38,976 crore for the year 2014-15 whereas for public sector banks, the figure is Rs.37,823.39 crore," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

There are 27 public sector banks and about 20 private sector banks in the country.

"The government is taking various steps to increase the efficiency of operations in public sector banks which include new governance structure at the board level, modification in guidelines to introduce professionalism at the board level and further revamping of the entire target setting," Sinha said.

In reply to another question, the minister said the percentage of government shareholding has slightly declined in six public sector banks during last three years owing to capital raised by these banks from the market.

Government shareholding has increased in 15 PSBs and remained unchanged for 6 PSBs, he added.

Sinha said the government has not offloaded its stock in any PSBs in last three years.