Top 20 bad loans account for Rs 1.5 lakh crore, reveals FM Arun Jaitley

The amount of top 20 Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) is Rs 1.54 lakh crore, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday in a reply to Lok Sabha. 

According to the data given by the Finance Minister, the State Bank of India topped the list with highest amount of Gross NPAs at Rs 93,137 crore as on June 30, 2016. Interestingly, the Bharatiya Mahila Bank had the lowest amount of bad loans with Rs 3 crore. 

In September end, the board of directors of SBI had approved the merger scheme with its five associates and Bhartiya Mahila Bank without any modifications. 

Following SBI, the Punjab National Bank has the second highest bad loans worth Rs 55,003 crore till June this year. 

Answering a question on loans/debts restructured during the last three years and current year, Jaitley said that under Public sector banks, the amount restructured during 2013-14 was Rs 3.29 lakh crore, in 2014-15 was Rs 3.84 lakh crore, in 2015-16 was 2.32 lakh crore and till June, 2016 was 2.13 lakh crore. 

While under Scheduled commercial banks, the amount of debt restructured during 2013-2014 was Rs 3.57 lakh crore, in 2014-15 was Rs 4.19 lakh crore, in 2015-16 was Rs 2.66 lakh crore and till June was Rs 2.44 lakh crore.

Sector wise, basic metal and metal products topped the list with having highest NPAs for Scheduled commercial banks with Rs 1.49 lakh crore till June. The NPA ratio of this sector stood at 34.47%. 

The sector with the lowest NPAs was Paper and Paper Products with Rs 4,982 crore till June. The NPA ratio stood at 13.06%. 

Moreover, when asked about the steps taken by the government, Jaitley said, "The Government has taken sector specific measures (Infrastructure, Power, Road, textiles, Steel etc.) where incidence of NPA is high. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy code (IBC) has been enacted and Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act (SARFAESI) and The Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions (RDDBFI) Act have been amended to improve resolution/recovery of bank loans".

Further, he mentioned that six new Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) have been established for improving recovery. The Reserve Bank of India has also provided a number of tools in this regard- Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR),Formation of Joint Lenders’ Forum (JLF), Flexible Structuring for long term project loans to Infrastructure and Core industries (5/25 Scheme), Strategic Debt Restructuring Scheme (SDR) and Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A).