FinMin mulls major steps to deal with stressed assets of banks

Amid concerns over stressed assets in the banking sector, the Finance Ministry today said some "major decisions" will be taken to tackle the issue.
"Stressed assets of banks is an area of concern. In the coming few months, some major decisions will be taken to deal with that," Economic affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said at the Ficci AGM.
Gross NPAs of public sector banks rose to Rs 3.14 at the end of September 2015.
Willful defaulters account for 20 per cent of the gross NPAs of PSU banks.
Das said while globally India is the engine of growth in times of crisis in Eurozone, recovery in the US and slowdown in China.

Outlining the challenges to achieving over 9 per cent growth, Das said skill development and boosting agriculture output will be necessary.

"India is the only economy growing above 7 per cent. Our target is to move to 9 per cent and try to exceed that," he said, adding there was a need to continue with reforms and further boost domestic demand.
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Amitabh Kant said India has to grow at 9-10 per cent for three years for upliftment of people.
"We are working to ease doing business to take India among top 50 countries. We need to improve 30 position in the ease of doing business ranking next year's and in third year we need to jump 50 positions." Kant said, adding the reforms in last 15 months have been the best ever in India's history.

India improved its position from last year's 134 to 130 in the World Bank Doing Business 2016 ranking, among a total of 189 countries.
Steel secretary Aruna Sundarajan said there was a need to deepen reform process sooner or later for growth.
"Reform is necessary for the country. It is necessary for the larger good," she said.
(Reopens DCM94)
Asked about opening up of multi-brand retail for foreign investment, Das said the concept is becoming "irrelevant" with proliferation of e-commerce.
"The retail thing is increasingly becoming irrelevant. The world is today moving towards e-commerce. Even in smaller towns, people are buying vegetables online," he said.

"The retail trade is slowly moving towards e-commerce. I think technology is increasingly making retail business irrelevant in terms of huge retail outlets but the corner shop will continue to have its importance," he said.
With regard to deepening of debt market, he said, the government has got several reports on this and are being examined.
"We hope to take some decision (on deepening of debt market)," he said.