More financial scams in the offing: Amit Mitra

West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra today warned of more financial scams in the country as non performing assets (NPAs) of banks are steadily on the rise.

He said that while the percentage of NPAs in 2014 was 4.4 per cent of total advances of the banks, it steadily rose to 11.06 per cent in 2018 which he described as a "dangerous signal".

"Going by the systemic rise in the NPA trends, it appears that more financial scams are in the offing. Not only that, 11 public sector banks (PSBs) are on the list of RBI's prompt corrective action (PCA)", Mitra said at a seminar organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here.

Mitra said the figures were collated from the latest Financial Stability Report of RBI and in absolute terms, NPA levels had risen from Rs 2.04 lakh crore in 2014 to Rs 10.25 lakh crore in 2018.

"This climbing NPAs show surfacing of crony capitalism in the system," he added.

On small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Mitra said these job creating entities were getting squeezed due to non-availability of finance, adding that there should be a balance between large and small industries.