Banks' gross NPAs at Rs 8.41 lakh crore in Dec

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of all the banks in the country amounted to Rs 8,40,958 crore in December, led by industry loans followed by services and agriculture sectors, government said today.

The gross NPAs or bad loans of scheduled commercial banks as on December 31, 2017 due to loans to industry were at Rs 6,09,222 crore, accounting for 20.41 per cent of the gross advances.

That was followed by Rs 1,10,520 crore (5.77 per cent) dues from services sector; Rs 69,600 crore (6.53 per cent) from agriculture and allied activities; Rs 14,986 crore from other non-food credit and Rs 36,630 crore (2.01 per cent) from retail loans, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The highest amount of gross NPAs was for country's largest lender SBI at Rs 2,01,560 crore. Among others, Punjab National Bank (PNB) was at Rs 55,200 crore; IDBI Bank - Rs 44,542 crore; Bank of India - Rs 43,474 crore; Bank of Baroda - Rs 41,649 crore; Union Bank of India - Rs 38,047 crore; Canara Bank - Rs 37,794 crore and ICICI Bank - Rs 33,849 crore.

Indian Overseas Bank bank had gross NPAs of Rs 31,724 crore; Central Bank of India - Rs 32,491 crore; UCO Bank - Rs 24,308 crore; Allahabad Bank - Rs 23,120 crore; Andhra Bank - Rs 21,599 crore and Corporation Bank - Rs 21,818 crore.

Shukla said there are as many as 8,457 cases pending in the National Company Law Tribunal and 264 in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal as on December 31, 2017, through which banks seek to recover their dues.

In reply to a question on write off by banks, of which SBI has the highest amount, the minister said that the country's largest lender had written-off Rs 20,339 crore (including through compromise) in 2016-17.

"This is 24.9 per cent of the amount written off by all PSBs in 2016-17, which is marginally lower than SBI's share in the total business of PSBs (26.3 per cent)," he added.

SBI has apprised that it has two-fold strategy for controlling fresh slippages and resolution of existing NPAs.

Further, government has recently announced PSBs reforms agenda for responsive and responsible banking, which encapsulates a synergistic approach for ensuring prudential and clean lending, better customer service, enhanced credit availability, focus on micro, small and medium enterprises and better governance, he said.

Also, Reserve Bank has issued a Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework to maintain sound financial health of banks.

RBI has placed eleven PSBs -- Dena Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank, Corporation Bank, Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and United Bank of India --under the PCA framework.