Top 30 NPAs of PSBs account for one-third of total bad loans

Top 30 loan defaulters of public sector banks (PSBs) account for more than one-third of total gross non-performing assets of state-run lenders, Parliament was informed today.

"The ratio of top 30 NPAs as a percentage of gross NPAs, in respect of public sector banks, as on September 2013 is 35.5 per cent and for all banks it is 38.8 per cent," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The gross non-performing assets (GNPA) amount of top 30 accounts of public sector banks (PSBs) stood at Rs 72,174 crore, while for all banks it was Rs 91,667 crore at the end of September, 2013.

In case of nationalised banks, top 30 defaulters contributed 43.8 per cent to the GNPA with Rs 55,663 crore.

The GNPAs of SBI Group, comprising SBI and its five associates, were worth Rs 71,620 crore at the end of first quarter of the current fiscal.

Top 30 loan defaulters of SBI group, comprising SBI and its five associates, had a loan outstanding of Rs 16,511 crore or 21.7 per cent of the total loan.

To improve the health of the financial sector and to improve asset quality of banks, besides preventing slippages, RBI from time to time issues instructions of banks.

As per the norms, he said, each bank is required to have a robust mechanism for early detection of signs of distressed including prompt restructuring in the case of all viable accounts; to have a loan recovery policy which sets down the manner of recovery dues, targeted level of reduction and monitoring of of write-off.

In a separate response, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said, the government has advised public sector banks to take a number of new initiatives to increases the pace of recovery and manage NPAs, which include appointment of nodal officers for recovery, to conduct special drives for recovery of loss assets and to constitute a board level committee for monitoring of recovery.